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THE HISTORIC 

SERIES FOR 
YOUNG PEOPLE 




Historic Events of 
Colonial Days 



By 
RUPERT S. HOLLAND 

Author of "Historic Boyhoods" "Historic 
Girlhoods^* '^Historic Inventions" etc. 




PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright, 1916, by 

George W. Jacobs & Company 

Published, October, igi6 

■H13 




OCT 3 



All rights reserved 
Printed in U. S. A. 



©CI,A446191 



Contents 

I. A Puritan Hero . . , , « 9 
{Rhode bland, l6jd) 

II. Peter Stuyvesant's Flag , , ,21 

(^Nezv York, /66/) 

III. When Governor Andross Came to Con- 

necticut ...... 55 

(^Connecticut, /d/j") 

IV. The Struggle Between Nathaniel Bacon 

AND Sir William Berkeley ... 70 
([Virginia, l6y6) 

V. An Outlaw Chief of Maryland . . 105 

{Maryland, 1 684) 

VI. In the Days of Witches . . . 139 

(Massachusetts, l6g2) 

VII. The Attack on the Delaware , . 174 

(Pennsylvania, iyo6) 

VIII. The Pirates of Charles Town Harbor . 206 
(South Carolina, 17 18') 

IX. The Founder of Georgia . . . 245 

(Georgia, 1732) 

X. The Green Mountain Boys and the 

Yorkers 287 

(Vermont, 1/74) 



Illustrations 

Andross Stared at Governor Treat . . . Frontispiece 

Stuyvesant Bit His Lips as His Gunners Waited . Facing page 46 ^ 

" I Yield as Your Prisoner " . . . . " " 116' 

Nick Turned to Lead the Way . . . ** " 210 



I 

A PURITAN HERO 

{Rhode Island^ 1^30) 

The good ship Lyon had been sixty-seven days 
outward bound from the port of Bristol, in England, 
when she dropped anchor early in February, 1630, 
at Nantasket, near the entrance of Boston Harbor, in 
New England. The ship had met with many winter 
storms, and passengers and crew were glad to see 
the shores of Massachusetts. On the ninth of Feb- 
ruary the Lyo7i slipped through a field of drifting ice 
and came to anchor before the little settlement of 
Boston. On board the ship was a young man who 
was to play an exciting part in the story of the New 
World. 

Yet this young man, Roger Williams by name, 
seemed simple and quiet enough, as he and his wife 
came ashore and were welcomed by Governor John 
Winthrop. He was a young preacher, filled with a 
desire to carry his teaching to the new lands across 
the Atlantic Ocean, and he had been asked to be the 
minister of the First Church in Boston. As it turned 
out, however, his ideas were not the ideas of the 
people of Boston, and he soon found that the First 
Church was not the place for him. 



lo HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

So after a short stay in Boston Roger Williams 
and his wife went to Plymouth, which was then a 
colony separate from Massachusetts Bay. William 
Bradford, the governor of Plymouth, and his neigh- 
bors made the young preacher welcome, and there 
Roger Williams stayed for two years, teaching and 
exhorting and prophesying, as ministers were said 
to do in those days. There his daughter Mary was 
born. Roger Williams, however, was given to ar- 
gument and could be very obstinate at times, and 
presently he fell out with his neighbors at Plymouth, 
and moved again, this time to Salem. There he 
was given charge of the church, and there he, like 
many other free-thinking men, fell under the dis- 
pleasure of the governor of Massachusetts Bay. 
For some things he taught he was summoned be- 
fore the General Court of the Bay, and the Court 
ordered him to leave the colony. He did not go at 
once, and Governor Winthrop let him stay until the 
following January, when rumors came to Boston that 
Roger Williams was planning to lead twenty men of 
his own way of thinking to the country about Nar- 
ragansett Bay, and there establish a colony of his 
own. John Winthrop objected seriously to any such 
performance. 

The governor sent Captain John Underbill in a 
sailboat to Salem, with orders to seize Roger 
Williams and put him on board a ship that was 
lying at Nantasket Roads, ready to sail for England. 
But when Captain Underbill and his men marched 



A PURITAN HERO ii 

up to the house of Williams they found that the 
man they wanted had fled three days before. There 
was no knowing which way he had gone, the wil- 
derness stretched far and wide to west and south, 
and so they gave up the search for him and reported 
to Governor Winthrop that Roger Williams had dis- 
appeared. 

Five friends of Williams, knowing that he had 
been commanded to leave Massachusetts Bay, had 
gone into the wilderness and built a camp for him 
on the banks of a river which was called by the three 
names of the Blackstone, for the first settler there, 
the Seekonk, and the Pawtucket. There Williams 
joined them, and there they stayed during the 
winter and planted their crops in the spring. Then 
a messenger from the governor of Plymouth came, 
saying that their plantation was within the borders 
of the Plymouth Colony, and asking in a friendly 
way that Roger Williams and his friends should 
move to the other side of the river. 

The settlers did not like to lose the harvest of 
their new crops, but neither did they want to make 
enemies at Plymouth, and so they launched their 
canoe and paddled down the river in search of a new 
site. As they went down the stream tradition says 
that a group of Indians, standing on a great rock 
near the river's bank, recognized Roger Williams as 
a man who had once befriended them. They cried 
their greetings to the white men, and the latter 
landed and went up the rock and talked with the 



12 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Indians. Then, taking their canoe again, the white 
men went on down the river to its mouth, rounded a 
promontory, and came into an estuary of Narragan- 
sett Bay. Here they paddled north a short distance, 
until they reached the point where the Woonasqua- 
tucket and the Moshassuck Rivers joined, and there 
they landed, near a spring of sweet water. Here 
they pitched their camp, founding what was to be 
known in time as the Providence Plantations. 

The little colony of six men was soon joined by 
others, and presently a government was formed, 
somewhat like those of Massachusetts Bay and 
Plymouth. There were many Indians along the 
shores of Narragansett Bay, and Roger Williams 
made it his concern to be on friendly terms with all 
of them. When he had lived at Plymouth and at 
Salem he had met many Indians and had been liked 
by them. Canonicus and his nephew Miantonomoh, 
chiefs of the Narragansetts, ruled over all this new 
region. When the six settlers reached their new 
plantation these chiefs were at odds with a chief to 
the north named Ausamaquin. Williams set to 
work to reconcile the hostile Indians, and while he 
did so he made such friends of the Narragan- 
sett chiefs that they gave him a large tract of land, 
stretching from the Pawtucket to the Pawtuxet 
Rivers. In his turn Roger Williams sold the land 
to his company for thirty pounds. 

Here, as the little colony of Providence Planta- 
tions grew, Roger Williams tended to the govern- 



A PURITAN HERO 13 

ment of it and preached constantly to his people. 
All was not smooth sailing, however, even here in 
the wilderness. Men disagreed with the preacher, 
and he found it hard to keep them from continually 
fighting with each other. When there was no 
danger of trouble with the Indians, the settlers 
stirred up trouble for themselves, and Roger Will- 
iams had his hands full trying to keep first the white, 
and then the red, men in order. 

Every little while there would be some dispute, 
usually ending in bloodshed, between Indians and 
white men. Two white traders, venturing into the 
country between the two rivers now known as the 
Pawcatuck and the Thames, were killed by chiefs of 
the Pequods, who were the strongest tribe in all New 
England. News of this came to Plymouth, and was 
sent from there by messenger to the governor of 
Massachusetts Bay. Not long afterward a settler 
named John Oldham was killed by a party of In- 
dians as he was sailing his own boat off Block 
Island. The white men, putting this and that to- 
gether, decided that the Pequods were planning to 
kill all the settlers that came into their country, and 
thought it likely they were trying to get the Narra- 
gansett chiefs to join them in this. If these two 
tribes joined forces it would go hard with the white 
men, and so the people of Massachusetts Bay sent a 
message to Roger Williams, urging him to see his 
friends the Narragansetts, and try to keep them from 
joining with the Pequods. 



14 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Williams was brave, and he had need to be when 
he made his visit to the wigwam of the chief, Canoni- 
cus. He found men of the Pequods there, trying 
to induce Canonicus and the other Narragansett 
sachems to join them in war on the whites. He 
came as a friend, he showed no fear, and he stayed 
for several days, sleeping among them at night, as 
if he had no suspicion that the Pequods might want 
to kill him, alone and unarmed among so many of 
them. And the Pequods did not touch him. He 
had learned something of the Indian tongue while 
he lived at Plymouth and Salem, and he talked with 
them and the Narragansetts, urging them to be 
friends with the white men who had come to live 
among them. 

His visit to Canonicus was successful. The Nar- 
ragansett chiefs renewed their promises of friendship 
for Roger Williams' men and sent the Pequod 
envoys away. The disappointed Pequods, however, 
told the Narragansetts that the English were treach- 
erous folk and warned them that they would not 
always find these new settlers as friendly as Roger 
jWilliams had said. And in part the Pequods were 
right, for there were white men who were fully as 
treacherous as any Indians. 

Not long afterward four young men set out from 
Massachusetts Bay to go to the Dutch settlement on 
Manhattan Island. Somewhere between Boston and 
the Providence Plantations they sat down to rest 
and smoke. A Narragansett Indian came in sight. 



A PURITAN HERO 15 

and they called to him to stop and smoke a pipe 
with them. The Indian accepted their invitation. 
The white men saw that he was a trader and had a 
large stock of wampum, and also cloth and beads 
with him, and so, as he sat with them, they suddenly 
attacked him, and, robbing him, left him for dead. 
The Narragansett, though very badly wounded, was 
able after a while to drag himself back to the wig- 
wams of his tribe. There he told his story before he 
died. Some of the chiefs set out on the trail at once, 
and capturing three of the whites, took them to the 
settlers at Aquidneck. They were tried for the rob- 
bery and murder, found guilty, and executed, though 
some settlers murmured against Englishmen being 
condemned for doing harm to Indians. But wise 
men such as Governor Bradford and Roger Williams 
knew that they must use the same justice toward 
Indians as toward white men if they were ever to 
live in peace with their neighbors. 

So the Narragansetts kept peace with the new- 
comers who were building their homes on the shores 
of the great bay that bore the name of the Indian 
tribe, and Roger Williams turned his attention to the 
needs of his people. He wanted a charter from the 
king of England for his new colony, and to get it 
he had to go back to England. Instead of going to 
Boston or Plymouth to take ship he traveled south 
to the Dutch seaport of New Amsterdam. The 
Dutch were also having trouble with their Indian 
neighbors, and Roger Williams was urged to try to 



i6 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

pacify the red men. Governor Winthrop of Massa- 
chusetts Bay kept record of most of the important 
things that were taking place in the EngUsh colonies, 
and this is what he wrote : 

" 1643. Mo. 4, 20. — There fell out hot wars be- 
tween the Dutch and the Indians thereabout. The 
occasion was this. An Indian being drunk had slain 
an old Dutchman. . . . The Indians also of 
Long Island took part with their neighbors upon the 
main, and as the Dutch took away their corn, so 
they fell to burning the Dutch houses. But these, 
by the mediation of Mr. Williams, who was there to 
go in a Dutch ship for England, were pacified 
and peace reestablished between the Dutch and 
them." 

Roger Williams sailed from New Amsterdam in 
June or July, 1643, and on the voyage he spent much 
time in writing a remarkable book, " A Key into the 
Languages of America," as he called it. He reached 
England at a most exciting time. Parliament had 
rebelled against King Charles the First, the king 
had fled from London, the battle of Edge Hill had 
been fought between the Cavaliers and the Round- 
heads, and the country was an armed camp. Will- 
iams tried to get his charter from the Parliament, 
but matters were so upset that such business took a 
long time. The people of London were suffering 
for fuel, and he busied himself in plans to provide 
coal and wood for them, and he went on with his 
writings, most of which were religious arguments, 



A PURITAN HERO 17 

such as many men of that period, among them Will- 
iam Penn, were fond of writing. 

At last he was able to get his charter from Parlia- 
ment, and set out on his return journey. He had 
not sailed from Boston on his outward voyage be- 
cause of the order of exile from the colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay that still stood against him. But he 
asked permission of that colony to let him return by 
way of Boston, and this was granted. He landed at 
the same place where he had made his first landing 
in America ; journeyed, probably on foot, to the 
Blackstone River, and paddled his canoe to Narra- 
gansett Bay. As he approached the Bay he was 
met by a fleet of canoes manned by the chief settlers 
of his colony, who gave him a royal welcome. In 
return for his services in obtaining the charter for 
the new Providence Plantations the three settlements 
of Newport, Portsmouth and Providence agreed to 
pay him one hundred pounds. 

Roger Williams' wife had joined him at the Provi- 
dence Plantations, and they now had a family of six 
children. He did not approve of a minister being 
paid for his services, and so he, like many other 
preachers of the Puritans, found other means to sup- 
ply his family with bread and meat. He had traded 
with the Indians for furs while he was at Salem, and 
since then he had built a trading house on the west 
shore of Narragansett Bay, at a place called Caw- 
cawmsquissick by the Indians, about fifteen miles 
south of Providence, and near where the town of 



1 8 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Wickford now stands. Ninigret, one of his powerful 
Indian friends, lived near by, and saw to it that the 
best furs went to Roger Williams' house. It was a 
convenient place for the hunters to bring their stores, 
and it was not far across the bay to Newport, which 
was becoming the main shipping port of the colony. 
To Newport he took his furs to sell them in the 
market or send them by trading-vessel to England, 
and there he bought the stock of cloth and beads, 
sugar and other supplies that he paid to the Indians. 
He made at his trading-house at least one hundred 
pounds a year, the equal of five hundred dollars in 
American money, and with a much greater purchas- 
ing power in those days than now. 

Meantime the Narragansetts and the Mohegans 
had been at war with each other, and the former 
tribe winning, had made an alliance with the Mo- 
hegans, and threatened a joint attack on the English 
colonies. Williams and two or three others went out 
to the Indian chiefs and again made a treaty of 
peace with them, for there was no white man in 
New England for whom all the Indians had such 
affection as they had for Roger Williams. Time 
and again he saved his own colony, and the neigh- 
boring ones of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth 
and Connecticut from Indian attacks. His knowl- 
edge of the Indian tongues was of great assistance 
to him, and his desire to be perfectly fair and frank 
with them was even more valuable. 

Once more he went to England, for a Mr. Cod- 



A PURITAN HERO 19 

dington of Newport had obtained from Parliament a 
commission as governor for life of the settlements at 
Aquidneck, which interfered with the charter already 
granted to the Providence Plantations. There he 
succeeded in having the claims of his colony ad- 
justed, there he wrote more religious pamphlets and 
preached and lectured, and there he met Oliver 
Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, and John 
Milton the poet, and told them about the Indians of 
New England, their language and their customs and 
the missionary work the colonists were doing among 
them. 

After he went back to Providence George Fox, 
the famous Quaker leader, came to New England 
and preached to the people there. Roger Williams 
did not agree with Fox in many of his teachings, 
and took the opposite side at many public meetings. 
Whenever there was debate or argument over re- 
ligious matters Roger Williams wanted to have his 
share in it. He held the same views as leader of 
the Providence Plantations that he had voiced when 
he first came as minister to the First Church at 
Boston. 

In many ways Roger Williams was something 
like William Penn. He founded a colony that was 
in time to become one of the original Thirteen States 
of the American Union. He was a religious leader, 
and he was always fair in his dealings with the In- 
dians. Probably he was greatest as a friend of the 
Indians, for his litde colony was spared the frequent 



20 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

attacks and massacres that made life so hard for 
many of the small English settlements along the 
Atlantic coast. He came to the New World seeking 
liberty and justice between all men, and these he 
taught to the settlers who followed and built their 
homes around his log house on the shores of the 
great bay named for the Narragansetts. 



II 

PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 

{New Yorky i66f) 

I 
The island of Manhattan, which is now tightly 
packed with the office-buildings and houses of New 
York, was in 1661 the home of a small number of 
families who had come across the Atlantic Ocean 
from the Netherlands to settle this part of the new 
world for the Dutch West India Company. There 
was a fort at the southern end of the island, some- 
times known as the Battery, and two roads led from 
it toward the north. One of these roads followed 
the line of the street now called Broadway, running 
north to a great open field, or common, and, skirt- 
ing that, leading on to the settlement of Harlaem. 
In time this road came to be known as the Old Post 
Road to Boston. Another road ran to the east, and 
in its neighborhood were the farms of many of the 
richer Dutch settlers. Near where Third Avenue 
and Thirteenth Street now meet was the bouwery, 
as the Dutchmen called a farm, of Peter Stuyvesant, 
the governor of the colony of New Netherland. It 
was a large, prosperous bouwery, with a good-sized 
house for the governor and his family. 



22 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

This Dutch governor, sturdy, impetuous, obsti- 
nate, had lost a leg while leading an attack on the 
Portuguese island of Saint Martin, in 1644, and now 
used a wooden stump, which caused him to be nick- 
named " Wooden-Legged Peter." He was a much 
better governor than the others who had been sent 
out by the West India Company to rule New Neth- 
erland. He had plenty of courage, but he had also a 
very determined will of his own, which often made 
him seem a tyrant to the other settlers. 

Now there were two distinct classes of people in 
New Netherland : the peasants who worked the 
land, and the landowners, called patroons, who 
had bought vast tracts from the West India Com- 
pany, and lived on them like European nobles. It 
was the patroons who brought the peasants over, 
paying for their passage, and the peasants worked 
for them until they could repay the amount of their 
passage money, and then took up small farms on 
their patroon's estate, paying the rental in crops, as 
tenants did to the feudal lords of Europe. The great 
manors stretched north from the little town of New 
Amsterdam at the point of Manhattan Island. Above 
Peter Stuyvesant's bouwery was the manor of the 
Kip family, called Kip's Bay. In the middle of the 
island lived the Patroon De Lancey. Opposite, on 
Long Island, was the estate of the Laurences. And 
along the Hudson were the homes of the powerful 
families of Van Courtland and of Phillipse, of Van 
Rensselaer and of Schuyler. In spite of constant 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 23 

danger from Indians and their great distance from 
Europe the patroons Hved in a certain magnificence, 
and grew in power down to the time of the Revolu- 
tion. Farming and fur-trading were the chief sources 
of profit of the colony. There were a few storekeep- 
ers and mechanics, but they lived close to the fort 
and stockade at the Battery. The trades that had 
done so much to make the Netherlands in Europe 
rich played small part in the life of this New Nether- 
land. 

In the year 1661 the West India Company bought 
Staten Island from its patroon owner, a man named 
Cornelius Melyn. A block-house was built which 
was armed with two cannon and defended by ten 
soldiers, and invited the people of Europe who were 
called Waldenses and the Huguenots of France to 
settle on the island. Fourteen families soon came 
and took up farms there south of the Narrows. The 
West India Company, however, had broader views 
on religion than their governor, Peter Stuyvesant, 
had. John Brown, an Englishman, moved from 
Boston to Flushing, on Long Island, and, having by 
chance attended a Quaker meeting, invited the 
Quakers to meet at his new house. Neighbors told 
the governor that John Brown was using his farm as 
a meeting-place for Quakers, and Stuyvesant had 
him arrested. The quiet, unoffending farmer was 
fined twenty-five pounds and threatened with ban- 
ishment, and when he failed to pay, was imprisoned 
in New Amsterdam for three months. Then Gov- 



" 



24 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

ernor Stuyvesant issued an order banishing Farmer 
Brown. " John Brown," so ran the order, '* is to be 
transported from this province in the first ship ready 
to sail, as an example to others." Soon afterward 
he was sent to Holland in the Gilded Fox, but the 
officers of the West India Company received him 
kindly, rebuked the haughty governor for his sever- 
ity, and persuaded John Brown to return to Flush- 
ing. When he did go back Stuyvesant showed by 
his acts that he was ashamed of what he had done. 
For the governor, in spite of his headstrong acts, had 
sense enough to know that his little colony needed 
all the settlers it could find, no matter what their re- 
ligion, and that Quakers made as trustworthy set- 
tlers as any other kind. 

Early in 1663 an earthquake shook New Nether- 
land and the country round it. Soon afterward the 
melting snows and very heavy rains caused a tre- 
mendous freshet, which covered the meadow lands 
along the rivers, and ruined all the crops. Then 
came an outbreak of smallpox, which spread among 
the Dutchmen and the Indians like fire in a field of 
wheat. Over a thousand of the Iroquois tribe died 
of the plague. Then, as if these troubles were not 
sufficient for the colony, Peter Stuyvesant soon heard 
that there was new danger of an Indian uprising 
against his people 

There had been a truce between the red men and 
the white, but the former could not forget that after 
their last attack on the Dutch fifteen of their war- 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 25 

riors had been sent as slaves to the island of Cu- 
ragoa. There were many Indians near the prosper- 
ous settlement of Esopus, up in the Hudson country, 
and in the spring of 1663 settlers there sent word to 
the governor that they needed more protection from 
their dark-skinned neighbors. Stuyvesant replied 
that he would come himself soon and try to settle 
any differences. The Indian chiefs heard of this 
reply of the governor and in their turn sent him 
word that if he were coming to renew their treaty of 
friendship they should expect him to come without 
arms, and would then gladly meet in a council in 
the field outside the gate of Esopus, and smoke the 
pipe of peace with him. 

This was a friendly message, and the settlers at 
Esopus who lived within the palisades, as well as 
those at the little village of Wildwyck, which had 
sprung up a short distance from the fort, decided 
they had been wrong in suspecting the Indians of 
intending to harm them, and went on with their 
farming as usual. Peter Stuyvesant, busy in New 
Amsterdam, had not yet had a chance to go up to 
Esopus. On the seventh of June, as on other days, 
Indians came into the village, chatted with the 
settlers, and sold corn and other provisions they had 
grown. 

Then suddenly a war-whoop rang out inside the 
palisades, and was instantly followed by a hundred 
more within and without the gates. Indian blankets 
were thrown aside, and tomahawks and long knives 



I 



26 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

gleamed in the hands of the savages. The settlers 
were taken completely by surprise. Each Indian 
had marked his man. Men, women, and children 
were made prisoners or killed. Houses were plun- 
dered and set on fire, and the flames, escaping to the 
farms, soon made havoc of the prosperous village. 

The settlers fought, and for several hours the 
savage war-whoops were answered by the fire of 
muskets. The chief officer of the village, called the 
Schout, Roelof Swartwout by name, rallied a few 
men around him, and by desperate fighting at last 
drove the Indians outside the palisades and shut the 
gates against them. But the outer village was in 
ashes, the fields were strewn with bodies, and houses 
smoked to the sky. Within the palisades matters 
were not quite so bad, for a change of the wind had 
saved part of the buildings from the flames. 

Twenty-one settlers had been killed, nine were 
badly wounded, and forty-five, most of them women 
and children, had been taken captive. AH that 
night the Schout and his men stayed on guard at 
the gates, while in the distance they heard the shouts 
of the triumphant red men. 

The news of what had happened at Esopus spread 
rapidly through the Hudson country. In the villages 
the men hurried to strengthen their palisades, farmers 
fled with their families to the shelter of the nearest 
forts. The news came to Governor Stuyvesant on 
Manhattan Island, and he instantly sent forty-two 
soldiers to Esopus, and offered rewards to all who 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 27 

would enlist. Some friendly Indians from Long 
Island joined his forces, scouts were sent through 
the woods to find the hostile Indians' hiding-places. 
The Mohawks tried to make peace, and capturing 
some of the Dutch prisoners, sent them back to the 
village. The Mohawks also sent word that the 
Indians who had gone on the war-path felt they 
were only taking a just revenge for the act of the 
Dutch in sending some of their chiefs to Curagoa, 
that they would return their other prisoners in ex- 
change for rich presents, and were ready to make a 
new peace with the settlers. 

But Peter Stuyvesant thought it needful to teach 
his Indian neighbors a lesson. 

A white woman, Mrs. Van Imbrock, escaped from 
her captors, and finally reached Esopus after many 
hardships. She brought word that the Indians, some 
two hundred, had built a strong fort, and sent their 
prisoners every night under guard to a distant place 
in the mountains, intending to keep them as hos- 
tages. When he had heard her account, Stuyvesant 
sent out a party of two hundred and ten men, under 
Captain Crygier, armed with two small cannon, 
with which they hoped to make a breach in the 
walls of the Indian fort, which were only bullet- 
proof. 

This little army set out on the afternoon of July 
26th. They made their way through forests, over 
high hills, and across rivers. They bivouacked for 
the night, and next morning marched on until they 



28 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

were about six miles from the fort. Half the men 
were sent on to make a surprise-attack, while the 
rest followed in reserve. 

Scouts had brought word to the fort of the ap- 
proach of the Dutch, and the Indians had gone into 
the mountains with their prisoners. So Captain 
Crygier's men went into the fort and spent the night 
there, finding it an unusually well-built and well- 
protected place. An Indian woman, not knowing 
the white men were there, came back for some 
provisions, was taken prisoner, and told the direc- 
tion in which the chiefs had gone. Next morning 
twenty-five men were left at the fort, and the others 
followed the trail to a mountain, where the squaw 
said the Indians meant to camp. There were no 
red men there, and the squaw told of another camp 
yet farther on. 

The Dutch soldiers marched all day, but their 
hunt proved fruitless. Finally Captain Crygier gave 
the order to return to the captured fort. Here they 
burned the buildings, and carried of^f all the provi- 
sions. Then they returned to Esopus, to await 
other news. 

Early in September word came that the Indians 
had built another fort, or castle, as they called it, 
thirty-six miles to the southwest. Again Captain 
Crygier set out with his men, and on the second day 
came in view of the fort. It stood on a height, and 
was built of two rows of stout palisades, fifteen feet 
high. Crygier divided his forces, and one-half the 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 29 

men crept toward the fort. Then a squaw saw 
them, and by her cry warned the Indians. Both 
parties of the Dutch rushed up the hill, stormed the 
palisades, drove their enemies before them, and 
scattered them in the fields. Behind the fort was a 
creek. The Indians waded and swam it, and made 
a stand on the opposite bank. But the fire of the 
Dutchmen was too much for them, and shortly they 
were flying wildly into the wilderness. 

The Indian chief, Papoquanchen, and fourteen of 
his warriors were killed in the battle, twenty-two 
white prisoners were rescued, and fourteen Indians 
were captured. The fort was plundered of provi- 
sions, and the Dutch found eighty guns, besides, as 
they reported, " bearskins, deerskins, blankets, elk 
hides and peltries sufficient to load a shallop." 

There was great joy at Esopus when the victori- 
ous little army returned. Danger from that partic- 
ular tribe of Indians seemed at an end, but to make 
the matter certain a third expedition was sent out in 
the fall. They scouted through the near-by country, 
but found only a few scattered red men. Those that 
were left of the Esopus tribe after that last attack on 
their fort had fled south and finally become part of 
the Minnisincks. 

Again peace reigned in the Dutch settlements ; the 
farmers went back to their fields, and the soldiers re- 
turned to the capital at New Amsterdam. 

To the north of the Dutch colony lay the English 
colonies of New England, and the boundary between 



30 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

New Netherland and its neighbors had never been 
fixed. Many Englishmen had settled along the 
Hudson and on Long Island, and Governor Stuy- 
vesant thought it was high time to reach some 
agreement with the New England governors. So 
he went to Boston in September, 1663 ; but scarcely 
had he left New Amsterdam when an English agent, 
James Christie, arrived on Long Island, and told the 
people of Gravesend, Flushing, Hempstead and Ja- 
maica that they were no longer under Dutch rule, 
but that their territory had been annexed to the col- 
ony of Connecticut. 

Now many of the settlers at Gravesend were 
English, and most of the magistrates and officers. 
When Christie read his announcement to the people 
one of the few faithful Dutch magistrates. Sheriff 
Stillwell, arrested him on a charge of treason. Then 
the other magistrates ordered the arrest of Stillwell 
in turn, and the public feeling against the latter was 
so strong that he had to send word secretly to New 
Amsterdam, asking for help. A sergeant and eight 
soldiers were sent from New Amsterdam, and they 
again arrested Christie and placed him under guard 
in SheriflF Stillwell's house. 

Rumors came that the farmers meant to rescue 
Christie, so he was taken at night to the fort on 
Manhattan Island. Sheriff Stillwell had to fly from 
his own house to escape the neighbors, and hurried 
to New Amsterdam, where he complained of the 
illegal acts of the Gravesend settlers. Excitement 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 31 

ran high. People on Long Island demanded that 
Christie be set free ; but the Dutch council insisted 
on keeping him a prisoner. The council sent an ex- 
press messenger to Peter Stuyvesant in Boston, ask- 
ing him to settle the Long Island difficulties with 
the English governor there. 

But the officers of New England would not agree 
to the sturdy Dutchman's terms. And other Eng- 
lish colonists went through the land that belonged 
to the Dutch, rousing the farmers against the West 
India Company. Richard Panton, armed with 
sword and pistol, threatened the men of Flatbush 
and other villages near by with the pillage of their 
property unless they would swear allegiance to the 
government at Hartford and fight against the Dutch. 
Such was the news that greeted Stuyvesant when 
he came back to his capital from Boston. He knew 
that there were not enough of the Dutch to resist an 
attack from the English, who had come swarming in 
great numbers recently into Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut. His only hope lay in argument, and so he 
sent four of his leading men to Hartford to try to 
arrange a peaceful settlement. 

The four Dutchmen sailed from New Amsterdam, 
and after two days on the water landed at Milford. 
There they took horses and rode to New Haven, 
where they spent the night. Next day they went on 
to Hartford over the rough roads of the wilderness. 
They were well received, and John Winthrop, who 
was governor of Connecticut and a son of Governor 



32 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Winthrop of Massachusetts, admitted that some of 
the claims of the Dutch were just. But the rest of 
the officers at Hartford stoutly insisted that all that 
part of the Atlantic seacoast belonged to the king of 
England, by right of first discovery and claim. 
"The opinion of the governor," said these men, "is 
but the opinion of one man. The grant of the king 
of England includes all the land south of the Boston 
line to Virginia and to the Pacific Ocean. We do 
not know any New Netherland, unless you can show 
a patent for it from the king of England." Appar- 
ently the Dutch had no rights there at all ; the whole 
tract between Massachusetts and Virginia belonged 
to Connecticut. 

Still the Dutchmen tried to reach some sort of 
friendly agreement. They proposed that what was 
known as Westchester, the land lying north of Man- 
hattan Island, should be considered part of Connec- 
ticut, but that the towns on Long Island should re- 
main under the government of New Netherland. 
" We do not know of any province of New Nether- 
land," the Hartford officers replied. " There is a 
Dutch governor over a Dutch plantation on the 
island of Manhattan. Long Island is included in 
our patent, and we shall possess and maintain it." 

So the four Dutchmen had to return to Governor 
Stuyvesant with word that the Connecticut men 
would yield none of their claims. 

The state of affairs was going from bad to worse. 
Stuyvesant called a meeting of men from all the 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 33 

neighboring villages, and the meeting sent a report 
to the Dutch government in Europe. 

The report had hardly been sent, however, when 
more startling events took place in the colony. 
Two Englishmen, Anthony Waters and John Coe, 
with a force of almost one hundred armed men, vis- 
ited many of the villages where there were English 
settlers, and told them they must no longer pay 
taxes to the Dutch, as their country belonged to the 
king of England. They put their own officers in 
place of the Dutch officers in these villages, and 
then, marching to settlements where most of the 
people were Dutch, they tried to make the people 
there take the oath of allegiance to the English 
king. 

A month later a party of twenty Englishmen se- 
cretly sailed up the Raritan River in a sloop, called 
the chiefs of some of the neighboring Indian tribes 
together, and tried to buy a large tract of land from 
them. They knew all the while that the Dutch 
West India Company had bought that same land 
from the Indians some time before. 

As soon as he heard of this Peter Stuyvesant sent 
Crygier, with some well-armed men, in a swift yacht, 
to thwart the English traders. He also sent a 
friendly Indian to warn the chiefs against trying to 
sell land they no longer owned. The Dutch yacht 
arrived in time to stop the Indians from dealing with 
the English, and the latter, baffled there, sailed their 
sloop down the bay to a place between Rensselaer's 



34 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Hook and Sandy Hook, where they met other In- 
dians and tried to bargain with them for land. The 
Dutch Crygier overtook them. 

" You are traitors ! " he cried. " You are acting 
against the government to which you have taken the 
oath of fidelity ! " 

"This whole country," answered the men from the 
sloop, ** has been given to the English by His Maj- 
esty the King of England." 

Then the two parties separated, Crygier and his 
men sailing back to New Amsterdam. 

While matters stood this way in the province of 
New Netherland an Englishman, John Scott, peti- 
tioned King Charles the Second to grant him the 
government of Long Island, which he said the Dutch 
settlers were unjustly trying to take away from the 
king of England. Scott was given authority to 
make a report to the English government on the 
state of affairs in that part of the New World, and 
in order to do this he sailed to America and went to 
New Haven, where he was warmly welcomed. The 
colony of Connecticut gave him the powers of a 
magistrate throughout Long Island, and he at once 
set to work to wrest the island from the Dutch, 
whom he upbraided as " cruel and rapacious neigh- 
bors who were enslaving the English settlers." 

Some of the villages on Long Island, however, 
and especially those where there were many Quakers 
and Baptists, did not want to come under the rule of 
the Puritans. Therefore six towns, Hempstead, 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 35 

Gravesend, Flushing, Middlebury, Jamaica and 
Oyster Bay, formed a government of their own, ask- 
ing John Scott to act as their president, until the 
king of England should establish a permanent gov- 
ernment for them. Scott swelled with pride in his 
new power. He gathered an armed force of one 
hundred and seventy men, horse and foot, and 
marched out to compel the neighboring Dutch towns 
to join his new colony. 

First he marched on Brooklyn. There he told the 
citizens that their land belonged to the crown of 
England, and that he now claimed it for the king. 
He had so many men with him that the Dutch saw 
it would be impossible to arrest him, but one of them, 
the secretary. Van Ruy ven, suggested that he should 
cross the river to New Amsterdam and talk with 
Peter Stuyvesant. Scott pompously answered, " Let 
Stuyvesant come here with a hundred men ; I will 
wait for him and run my sword through his body ! " 
And he scowled and marched up and down before 
the stolid Dutchman like a fierce cock-o'-the-walk. 

The Dutchmen of Brooklyn, however, did not 
seem anxious to exchange the rule of Governor 
Peter Stuyvesant for that of Captain John Scott. 
As he was strutting up and down Captain Scott 
spied a boy who looked as if he would like to use 
his fists on the Englishman. The boy happened to 
be a son of Governor Stuyvesant's faithful officer 
Crygier. Captain Scott walked up to the boy, and 
ordered him to take off his hat and salute the flag of 



36 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

England. Young Crygier refused, and the quick- 
tempered captain struck at him. One of the men 
standing by called out, " If you have blows to give, 
you should strike men, not boys ! " 

Four of Scott's men jumped at the man who had 
dared to speak so, and the latter, picking up an axe, 
tried to defend himself, but soon found it best to 
run. Scott ordered the people of Brooklyn to give 
the man up, threatening to burn the town unless 
they did so. But the man was not surrendered, and 
the captain did not dare to carry out his threat. 

Instead he marched to Flatbush, and unfurled his 
flag before the house of the sheriff. Settlers gath- 
ered round to see what was happening, and Captain 
Scott made them a speech. '* This land," said he to 
the Dutchmen, *• which you now occupy, belongs to 
His Majesty, King Charles. He is the right and law- 
ful lord of all America, from Virginia to Boston. 
Under his government you will enjoy more freedom 
than you ever before possessed. Hereafter you 
shall pay no more taxes to the Dutch government, 
neither shall you obey Peter Stuyvesant. He is no 
longer your governor, and you are not to acknowl- 
edge his authority. If you refuse to submit to the 
king of England, you know what to expect." 

But the men of Flatbush were no more ready to 
obey the haughty captain than those of Brooklyn 
had been. One of the magistrates dared to tell 
Scott that he ought to settle this dispute with Peter 
Stuyvesant. "Stuyvesant is governor no longer," 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 37 

he retorted. *' I will soon go to New Amsterdam, 
with a hundred men, and proclaim the supremacy 
of His Majesty, King Charles, beneath the very walls 
of the fort 1 " 

The Dutch would not obey him, but neither would 
they take up arms against him. Such treatment 
angered the fire-eating captain more and more. 
He marched his troop to New Utrecht, where the 
Dutch flag floated over the block fort, armed with 
cannon. Meeting no resistance from the peace- 
loving settlers Scott hauled down their flag and re- 
placed it with the flag of England. Then, using 
the Dutch cannon and Dutch powder he fired a 
salute to announce his victory. All those who 
passed the fort were ordered to take off their hats 
and bow before the new banner, and those who re- 
fused were arrested by his men, and some were 
bound and beaten. 

Peter Stuyvesant, in New Amsterdam, heard of 
these disturbances on Long Island, and sent three 
of his leading men to meet Scott and try to make 
some settlement with him. They met the captain 
at Jamaica, and after much wrangling, at last 
reached what they thought might be an agreement. 
But as they left Scott fired these words at their 
backs : " This whole island belongs to the king of 
England. He has made a grant of it to his brother, 
the Duke of York. He knows that it will yield him 
an annual revenue of one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. He is soon coming with an ample 



38 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

force, to take possession of his property. If it is not 
surrendered peaceably he is determined to take, not 
only the whole island, but also the whole province 
of New Netherland ! " 

This was alarming news. Some of the English 
settlers were rallying to Scott's command, the Dutch 
in some of the villages fled to Dutch forts for shelter. 
Even the prosperous men in New Amsterdam began 
to fear lest the English captain should attack their 
homes. Fortitications were hurriedly built, and 
men enrolled as soldiers. 

Peter Stuyvesant, fearful lest he should lose his 
colony, knowing well that the English greatly 
outnumbered the Dutch, found himself in a very 
difficult situation. But "Wooden-Legged Peter" 
was a fighter, quite as fiery as John Scott when 
his blood was up. 

II 
Peter Stuyvesant saw that he would have to make 
terms with the English Captain Scott, or more Eng- 
lish adventurers might come swarming down from 
New England and speedily gobble up the whole of 
Manhattan Island. He went to Hempstead on Long 
Island, on the third day of March, 1664, and made 
an agreement with Scott that the villages on the 
western part of the island, where the settlers were 
mainly English, should consider themselves under 
English rule until the whole dispute could be set- 
tled by King Charles and the Dutch government 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 39 

The Dutch had now lost bit by bit most of the 
colony the}' had started out to settle. First the 
English had taken the valley of the Connecticut 
River, because there were more English settlers 
there than Dutch, then they took Westchester, now 
the four important villages of Flushing, Jamaica, 
Hempstead and Gravesend were added to their list. 

Meantime the States-General of Holland, receiv- 
ing appeals for help from Stuyvesant, sent him sixty 
soldiers, and ordered him to resist any further de- 
mands of the English and to try to make the vil- 
lages that had rebelled return again to his flag. 
But the governor knew that he could not possibly 
do this, his people were outnumbered six to one, 
and while he was turning this matter over in his 
mind news came that the English people in Connec- 
ticut were making a treaty of alliance with the 
Indians who lived along the Hudson. Fearful lest 
all the tribes should side with his rivals, Stuyvesant 
invited a number of the Indian chiefs to a meeting 
at the fort of New Amsterdam. 

The chiefs came to the council. One of them 
called upon Bachtamo, their tribal name for the 
Great Spirit, to hear him. "Oh, Bachtamo," he 
said, " help us to make a good treaty with the 
Dutch. And may the treaty we are about to make 
be like the stick I hold in my hand. Like this stick 
may it be firmly united, die one end to the other." 

Then turning to Stuyvesant and his officers, he 
went on, " We all desire peace. I have come with 



40 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

my brother sachems, in behalf of the Esopus Indians, 
to conclude a peace as firm and compact as my 
arms, which I now fold together." 

He held out his hand to the governor. " What I 
now say is from the fullness of my heart. Such is 
my desire, and that of all my people." 

A treaty was drawn up, signed by the Dutch and 
the Indians, and celebrated by the firing of cannon 
from the fort. Stuyvesant proclaimed a day of gen- 
eral thanksgiving in honor of the new alliance with 
the Indians. 

Now it had been supposed that the English towns 
on Long Island would join the colony of Connecti- 
cut, but instead the settlers proclaimed their own 
independence and chose John Scott for their presi- 
dent. Then the court at Hartford sent John Allyn, 
with a party of soldiers, to arrest Captain Scott for 
treason. Scott met the Connecticut soldiers with 
soldiers of his own, and demanded what they wanted 
on his land. The Connecticut officer read the order 
for Scott's arrest. Then said Captain Scott, " I will 
yield my heart's blood on this ground before I will 
give in to you or any men from Connecticut ! " The 
men from Hartford answered readily, " So will we ! " 

But in spite of his bold words his opponents did 
succeed in arresting Scott, and, taking him to Hart- 
ford, put him in prison there. Governor Winthrop 
went to Long Island to appoint new officers in the 
English villages in place of Scott's men, and Stuyve- 
sant seized the chance to go to meet the Connecticut 



PETER STU YVES A NT'S FLAG 41 

governor and make some treaty with him. The 
governor of New Netherland explained to the gov- 
ernor of the Connecticut Colony that the Dutch 
claimed the land they occupied by the rights of dis- 
covery, purchase, and possession, and reminded him 
that the boundary between the two colonies had 
been defined in a treaty made in 1650. Said that 
treaty, " Upon Long Island a line run from the west- 
ernmost part of Oyster Bay, in a straight and direct 
line to the sea, shall be the bounds between the 
English and the Dutch there ; the easterly part to 
belong to the English, the westernmost part to the 
Dutch." 

Yet, in spite of this, Governor Winthrop was now 
many miles west of the line, claiming villages that 
were clearly in Dutch territory. The truth was that 
Governor Winthrop knew Peter Stuyvesant had not 
the needful number of men to oppose the English 
claims. And the upshot of the meeting was that 
Winthrop simply declared that the whole of Long 
Island belonged to the king of England. 

That king of England, Charles II, now took a hand 
in the matter himself. On March 12, 1664, he granted 
to his brother, James, Duke of York, the whole of 
Long Island, all the islands near it, and all the lands 
and rivers from the west shore of the Connecticut 
River to the east shore of Delaware Bay. It was a 
wide, magnificent grant, sweeping away the colony 
of New Netherland as if it had been a twig in the 
path of a tornado. 



42 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Word reached New Amsterdam that a fleet of 
armed ships had sailed from Portsmouth in England, 
bound for the Hudson River, to take possession of 
the neighboring territory. The prosperous Dutch 
settlers were in a panic. Peter Stuy vesant called his 
council, and they decided to lose no time in making 
their fortifications as strong as possible. Money was 
raised, powder was sent for, agents hurried to buy 
provisions all through the countryside. In the midst 
of these preparations the Dutch government, which 
had been completely fooled as to the plans of the 
English king, sent a message to Governor Stuyve- 
sant saying that he need have no fear of any further 
trouble from the English. 

This was pleasant word ; it relieved the fears that 
had been raised by the message of the armed fleet 
sailing from Portsmouth for the Hudson. The work 
on the forts was stopped, and Stuyvesant went up 
the river to Fort Orange to try to quiet Indian tribes 
in that neighborhood who were threatening to take 
to the war-path. 

The English fleet, four frigates, with ninety-four 
guns all told, meantime came sailing across the At- 
lantic, and arrived at Boston the end of July. Colo- 
nel Richard Nicholls was in command of the expe- 
dition, with three commissioners sent out with him 
from England. Their instructions were to reduce 
the Dutch to subjection. They were to get what aid 
they could from the New England colonies. The 
people of Boston, however, were too busy with their 



PETER STU YVES A NT'S FLAG 43 

own afFairs, and too content, to be interested in help- 
ing to fight the Dutch, But Connecticut was quite 
ready to help, and so Colonel Nicholls sent word to 
Governor Winthrop to meet the English fleet at the 
west end of Long Island, to which place it would 
sail with the first favoring wind. 

A friend of Peter Stuy vesant's in Boston sent news 
of the English plans to New Amsterdam. A fast 
rider carried the message to the governor at Fort 
Orange. Stuyvesant hastened back to his capital, 
very angry at having lost three weeks in which to 
make ready his defenses. He called every man to 
work with spade, shovel and wheelbarrow. Six can- 
non were added to the fourteen already on the fort. 
Messengers rode through the country summoning 
other garrisons to come to the aid of New Amster- 
dam. 

On August 20th the English frigates anchored in 
Nyack Bay, just below the Narrows, between New 
Utrecht and Coney Island. All communication be- 
tween Long Island and Manhattan Island was cut 
off. Some small Dutch boats were captured. Three 
miles away from the fleet's anchorage, on Staten 
Island, was a small fort, a block-house, some twenty 
feet square. It boasted two small guns, which shot 
one pound balls, and was garrisoned by six soldiers. 
The English, sending some of their men ashore, had 
little difficulty in capturing the fort and rounding up 
the cattle that were grazing in the near-by fields. 

The morning after he dropped anchor Colonel 



44 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Nicholls despatched four of his men to Fort 
Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, with a summons 
to the garrison to surrender. At the same time he 
sent out word that if any of the farmers furnished 
supplies to the fort he would burn their houses, but 
that if they would quietly acknowledge the English 
flag they might keep their farms in peace. 

Now Peter Stuyvesant had only one hundred 
soldiers in his garrison, and he could not hope for 
much real aid from the other men, undisciplined and 
poorly armed as they were, who lived on Manhattan 
Island. But he meant to resist these invaders as 
strongly as he was able, and so called his council to- 
gether to consider what they might do for defense. 

The peace-loving Dutch citizens, however, lacked 
the fiery spirit of their governor, and they too held 
a meeting, and voted not to resist the English fleet, 
and asked for a copy of the demand to surrender 
that Nicholls had sent to the fort. Governor Stuy- 
vesant, angry though he was, went to the citizens 
and tried to persuade them to stand by him. But 
the citizens, fearful that a bombardment would des- 
troy their little settlement, were not in the humor to 
agree with his ideas. 

The English commander sent another envoy, with 
a flag of truce, to Fort Amsterdam, carrying a letter 
which stated that if Manhattan Island was surrendered 
to him the Dutch settlers might keep all the lands and 
buildings they possessed. Stuyvesant received the 
letter, and read it to his council. The council in- 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 45 

sisted that the letter should be read to the people. 
Stuyvesant refused, saying that he, and not the peo- 
ple, was the best judge as to what New Amsterdam 
should do. The council continued to argue and 
threaten, until Stuyvesant tore up the letter and 
trampled it under his feet to settle the matter. 

The citizens, however, had heard that such a letter 
had come with a flag of truce, and they sent three 
men to demand the message from Peter Stuyvesant. 
These men told him bluntly that the people did not 
intend to resist the English, that resistance to such a 
large force was madness, and that they would mu- 
tiny unless he let them see the letter Colonel Nich- 
olls had sent. 

Again Governor Stuyvesant was forced to yield to 
pressure. A copy was made of the letter from its 
torn pieces, and this was read to the turbulent citi- 
zens. When they had heard it they declared that 
they were ready to surrender. But the governor 
hated the notion of giving up his province of New 
Netherland without a struggle ; of yielding to high- 
way robbers, as he regarded the English fleet. So 
he sent a ship secretly from Fort Amsterdam by 
night, bearing a message to the directors of the 
Dutch Company in Europe. The message was 
short. " Long Island is gone and lost. The capitol 
cannot hold out long," was what it said. 

Then he sat down and wrote an answer to the 
letter of Colonel Nicholls. It was a fair-spoken an- 
swer, pointing out that this land belonged to the 



46 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Dutch by right of discovery and settlement and pur- 
chase from the Indians. He said that he was sure 
the king of England would agree with the Dutch 
claims if they were presented to him. This was the 
end of his letter: *'In case you will act by force of 
arms, we protest before God and man that you will 
perform an act of unjust violence. You will violate 
the articles of peace solemnly ratified by His Majesty 
of England, and my Lords the States-General. 
Again for the prevention of the spilling of innocent 
blood, not only here but in Europe, we offer you a 
treaty by our deputies. As regards your threats we 
have no answer to make, only that we fear nothing 
but what God may lay upon us. All things are at 
His disposal, and we can be preserved by Him with 
small forces as well as by a great army." 

The only answer the English commander saw fit 
to make to the Dutch governor's letter was to order 
his soldiers to prepare to land from the frigates. 

Ill 
Soldiers, both foot and cavalry, were landed on 
Long Island from the English fleet, and marched 
double-quick through the forest toward the small 
cluster of houses that stood along the shore where 
the city of Brooklyn now rises. They met with 
no resistance ; for the most part these woods and 
shores were as empty of men as the day when 
Henryk Hudson first sailed up the river that bears 
his name. 




Stuyvesant Bit His Lirs as His Gunners Waited 



PETER STUY VESA NT'S FLAG 4; 

The fleet meanwhile went up through the Nar- 
rows, and two frigates landed more soldiers a short 
distance below Brooklyn, to support those that were 
marching down the island. Two other frigates, one 
of thirty-six guns, the second of thirty, under full 
sail, passed directly within range of Stuyvesant's lit- 
tle fort, and anchored between the fort and Gov- 
ernor's Island. The English fleet meant to show 
their contempt for the Dutch claims. 

What was Peter Stuyvesant doing as the frigates 
so insolently sailed past under his very eyes? He 
was a fighter by nature and by trade, as peppery as 
some of the sauces he had brought with him from 
the West Indies. The cannon of his fort were 
loaded, and the gunners stood ready with their 
burning matches. A word, a nod, a wave of the 
hand from Stuyvesant, and the cannon would roar 
their answer to the insolent fleet. And what would 
happen then? Fort Amsterdam had only twenty 
guns ; and the two frigates sailing by had sixty-six, 
and the two other frigates, almost within sight, had 
twenty-eight more. Stuyvesant bit his lips as his 
gunners waited. The first roar of his cannon would 
almost certainly mean the ruin of every house in 
New Amsterdam. 

Yet could the governor see the flag of his be- 
loved New Netherland flouted in this fashion? 
Raging with anger, the word to fire trembling on 
his lips, Stuyvesant turned to listen to the advice of 
two Dutch clergymen who had hurried up to him. 



48 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

They begged him not to be the first to shed blood 
in a fight that could only end in their utter defeat. 
They were outnumbered, outmatched in every way. 
The governor knew this was so ; no one in the 
colony indeed knew it better than he. " I won't 
open fire," he said, bitter rage in his heart, but he 
shook his fist at the white sails of the frigates. 

Stuyvesant left the rampart, leaving fifty men to 
defend the fort, and took the rest of the garrison, 
one hundred soldiers, down to the shore, to repel 
the English if they should try to land. He still had 
a faint hope that the English commander would 
make some terms with him that would allow him to 
keep the flag of Holland flying over New Amster- 
dam. 

With this faint hope he sent four of his chief 
officers with a flag of truce to Colonel Nicholls. 
They carried this message from Peter Stuyvesant : 
" I feel obliged to defend the city, in obedience to 
orders. It is inevitable that much blood will be 
shed on the occurrence of the assault. Cannot 
some accommodation yet be agreed upon ? Friends 
will be welcome if they come in a friendly manner." 

So spoke the Dutch governor, trying to be 
patient and reasonable, no matter how hard such a 
course might be for him. Colonel Nicholls, sure of 
his greater power in men and guns, cared not a whit 
to be either reasonable or patient. He sent back a 
determined answer. '• I have nothing to do but to 
execute my mission," he said. "To accomplish that 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 49 

I hope to have further conversation with you on the 
morrow, at the Manhattans. You say that friends 
will be welcome, if they come in a friendly manner. 
I shall come with ships and soldiers. And he will 
be bold indeed who will dare to come on board my 
ships, to demand an answer or to solicit terms. 
What then is to be done ? Hoist the white flag of 
surrender, and then something may be considered." 

This haughty answer spread through New Am- 
sterdam, and men and women rushed to the gov- 
ernor to beg him to surrender. Bombardment by 
the fleet would destroy all they owned, and doubt- 
less kill many of them. Stuyvesant would have 
fought until his flag fell over a heap of ruins, but he 
knew that his people would not stand behind him. 
" I had rather," he told the men and women as they 
thronged about him, "be carried a corpse to my 
grave than to surrender the city ! " 

The people went to the City Hall, and drew up a 
paper of protest to their governor. The protest said 
that the people could only see misery, sorrow, and 
fire in resistance, the ruin of fifteen hundred inno- 
cent men, women and children, only two hundred 
and fifty of whom were capable of bearing arms. 

The words of the protest were true. "You are 
aware," it said, " that four of the English king's 
frigates are now in the roadstead, with six hundred 
soldiers on board. They have also commissions to 
all the governors of New England, a populous and 
thickly inhabited country, to impress troops, in ad- 



50 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

dition to the forces already on board, for the purpose 
of reducing New Netherland to His Majesty's obedi- 
ence. 

** These threats we would not have regarded, 
could we expect the smallest aid. But, God help 
us, where shall we turn for assistance, to the north 
or to the south, to the east or to the west ? 'Tis all 
in vain. On all sides we are encompassed and 
hemmed in by our enemies." Ninety-four of the 
chief men of New Amsterdam signed this protest, 
one of them being Stuyvesant's own son. In front 
of the governor were the guns of the English fleet, 
behind him was the mutiny of his own people. 

New Amsterdam, only a cluster of some three 
hundred houses at the southern end of Manhattan 
Island, was entirely open to attack from either the 
East or the North River. An old palisade, built to 
protect the houses from Indian attacks, stretched 
from river to river on the north, and in front of this 
palisade were the remains of an old breastwork, 
three feet high and two feet wide. These might be 
of use against the Indians, but hardly against well- 
trained white soldiers. 

Fort Amsterdam itself had only been built to 
withstand Indians, not white men. An earthen ram- 
part, ten feet high and four feet thick, surrounded it, 
but there were no ditches or palisades. At its back, 
where the crowds of Broadway now daily pass, were 
a number of low wooded hills, with Indian trails 
leading through them. These hills, if held by an 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 51 

enemy, could easily command the fort. The little 
Dutch garrison hadn't five hundred pounds of 
powder on hand. The store of provisions was 
equally small, and there was not a single well of 
water within the fortifications. To cap the climax, 
the garrison itself couldn't be trusted ; it was 
largely made up of the lowest class of the settlers, 
unfit to do any other work than shoulder a gun. 

So Peter Stuyvesant saw that he must yield. He 
chose six of his men to meet with six of the English 
at his own bouwery on the morning of August 27th. 
There was litde for the Dutchmen to do but agree 
to the terms their enemies offered them. The 
terms were that the province of New Netherland 
should belong to the English. The Dutch settlers 
might keep their own property or might leave the 
country if they chose. They might have any form 
of religion they pleased. Their officers, to be chosen 
at the next election, would have to take the oath of 
allegiance to the king of England. 

Peter Stuyvesant only yielded because he saw 
that he must. He pulled down his flag that was 
flying above the ramparts, and " the fort and town 
called New Amsterdam, upon the island of Man- 
hatoes," as the treaty called it, passed from the 
ownership of the Dutch to that of the English. The 
officers and soldiers of the fort were allowed to march 
out with their arms, their drums beating and their 
colors flying. Most of the soldiers, many of the 
settlers, cared little what flag flew above their colony, 



52 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

so long as they were permitted a peaceful living, but 
at least one Dutchman, the governor, " Wooden- 
Legged Peter," cared much when he saw the flag of 
the Netherlands come fluttering down. 

The English Colonel Nicholls and his men marched 
into the fort and took possession of the government. 
They changed the name of the little settlement from 
New Amsterdam to New York, in honor of the Duke 
of York, who was the brother of the king of England. 
The fort was christened Fort James, the name of the 
Duke of York. Then Colonel Nicholls sent troops 
up the Hudson to take possession of the Dutch 
settlement of Fort Orange, and other troops to the 
Delaware River to raise the English flag over the 
small Dutch colony of New Amstel. The name of 
Fort Orange was changed to Fort Albany, the 
second title of the king's brother, the Duke of 
York. The settlers there were well treated, and 
given the same liberty as was given the people on 
Manhattan Island. But those at New Amstel, on 
the Delaware, did not fare so well. Peter Stuyve- 
sant indignantly reported that " At New Amstel, on 
the South River, notwithstanding they offered no 
resistance, but demanded good treatment, which 
however they did not obtain, they were invaded, 
stript bare, plundered, and many of them sold as 
slaves in Virginia." 

The flag of England now flew where the flag of 
the Netherlands had waved for half a century. 
There was no excuse for this seizing of the Dutch 



PETER STUYVESANT'S FLAG 53 

colony by the English. The Dutch were peaceful 
neighbors, fair in their dealings with the other 
colonies. But while the Dutch had not greatly in- 
creased the number of their settlers in the New 
World, the English had. New England was grow- 
ing fast, so was Virginia, and in between these two 
English settlements lay the small Dutch one, at the 
mouth of a great river, and with the finest harbor 
of the whole seacoast. The English had cast envious 
eyes upon Manhattan Island. They wanted to own 
the whole seacoast ; and so, being strong enough, 
they took it. And the Dutch, like the Indians before 
them, had to bow to the stronger force. 

The Dutch Government in Europe called Peter 
Stuyvesant there to explain why he had surrendered 
his colony. He went to Holland and made his acts 
so clear to the States-General that they held him 
guiltless of every charge against him. Then he 
returned to New York and settled down at his 
bouwery, where he lived comfortably and well, like 
most of his Dutch neighbors, unvexed by the constant 
troubles he had known when he was the governor. 

The colony of New York grew and prospered. 
The patroons lived on their big estates, rich, hospi- 
table families, much like the wealthy planters of 
Virginia. The Dutch people in the towns were a 
thrifty, peaceable lot, glad to welcome new settlers, 
no matter from where they came. Most of the 
settlers came now from England, very few from the 
Netherlands ; and in time there were more English 



54 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

than Dutch in the province. By the time of the 
Revolution the people of the two nations were 
practically one in their ideas and aims. Dutch and 
English fought side by side in that war, and helped 
to make the great state of New York. But the 
Dutch blood and the Dutch virtues persisted, and 
many of the greatest men of the new state bore old 
Dutch names. And so, though Peter Stuyvesant 
and his neighbors had to haul down their flag from 
their primitive ramparts at Fort Amsterdam, they 
and their descendants left their stamp upon that 
part of the New World they had been the first to 
settle. 



Ill 



WHEN GOVERNOR ANDROSS CAME 
TO CONNECTICUT 

{Connecticut, i6y^) 

One of the most interesting stories in the history 
of the American colonies is that of the adventures of 
the judges who voted for the execution of King 
Charles I of England and who fled across the water 
when his son came to the throne as Charles II. 
They were known as the regicides, a name given 
to them because they were held to be responsible 
for the king's death. When Charles II came back 
to England as king, after the days when Oliver 
Cromwell was the Lord Protector, he pardoned 
many of the men who had taken sides against his 
father, but his friends urged him not to be so gen- 
erous in his treatment of the judges. So he issued 
a proclamation, stating that such of the judges of 
King Charles I as did not surrender themselves as 
prisoners within fourteen days should receive no 
pardon. The regicides and their friends were greatly 
alarmed. Nineteen surrendered to the king's offi- 
cers ; some fled across the ocean ; and others were 
arrested as they tried to escape. Ten of them were 
executed. Two, Edward Whalley and William 



56 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Goffe, reached Boston Harbor in July, 1660. An- 
other, John Dixwell, came afterward. 

Governor Endicott and the leading men of Bos- 
ton, not knowing how King Charles intended to 
treat the judges, welcomed them as men who had 
held posts of honor in England. They were enter- 
tained most hospitably in the little town, and they 
went about quite freely, making no attempt to con- 
ceal from any one who they were. 

Then word came to Boston that the king regarded 
the escaped judges as traitors. Immediately many 
of those who had been friendly to the regicides slunk 
away from them, avoiding them as if they had the 
plague. The judges heard, moreover, that now 
Governor Endicott had called a court of magistrates 
to order them seized and turned over to the execu- 
tioner. So, as they had fled from England before, the 
hunted regicides now fled from the colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. 

At the settlement of New Haven there were many 
who had been friends and followers of Oliver Crom- 
well, and the regicides turned in that direction. 
They reached that town in March, 1661, and found 
a haven in the home of John Davenport, a promi- 
nent minister. Here they were among friends, and 
here they went about as freely as they had done at 
first in Boston ; and everybody liked them, for they 
were fine, honorable men, who had done their duty 
as they saw it when they had decreed the execution 
of King Charles I. 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS $7 

There came a royal order to Massachusetts, re- 
quiring the governor to arrest the fugitives. The 
governor and his officers were anxious to show their 
zeal in carrying out all the wishes of the new king, 
and so they gave a commission to two zealous 
young royalists, Thomas Kellond and Thomas Kirk, 
authorizing them to hunt through the colonies as far 
south as Manhattan Island for the missing judges 
and to bring them back to Boston. 

The searchers set out at once, and went first to 
Governor Winthrop at Hartford. He gave them 
permission to arrest the regicides anywhere in the 
colony of Connecticut, but he assured them that he 
understood that the judges were not in his colony, 
but had gone on to the colony of New Haven. So 
they set forth again, and next day reached the town 
of Guilford, where they stopped to procure a war- 
rant from Governor Leete, who lived there. 

Governor Leete appeared to be very much sur- 
prised at the news the two men brought. He said 
that he didn't think the regicides were in New 
Haven. He took the papers bearing the orders of 
Governor Winthrop and read them in so loud a 
voice that the two men begged him to keep the 
matter more quiet, lest some traitors should over- 
hear. Then he delayed furnishing them with fresh 
horses, and, the next day being Sunday, the pursu- 
ers were forced to wait over an extra day before 
they could continue their hunt. 

In the meantime an Indian messenger was sent to 



58 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

New Haven in the night, to give warning oi the 
pursuers. Then Governor Leete refused either to 
give the pursuers a warrant or to send men with 
them to arrest the regicides until he should have 
had a chance to consult with the magistrates, which 
meant that he himself would have to go to New 
Haven. The upshot of all this was that the pur- 
suers stayed chafing in Guilford while the men they 
were hunting had plenty of time to escape. 

John Davenport, the minister at New Haven, 
preached that Sunday morning to a congregation 
that had heard the news of the pursuit of the Eng- 
lish judges. Davenport knew that the king of 
England had ordered the capture of the judges and 
that this colony of New Haven was part of the Eng- 
lish realm. Yet, for the sake of mercy and justice, 
he urged his hearers to protect the fugitives who 
had taken refuge among them. Not in so many 
words did he urge it, but his hearers knew what he 
meant, for the text of his sermon, taken from the 
sixteenth chapter of Isaiah, read : " Take counsel, 
execute judgment, make thy shadow as the night in 
the midst of noonday ; hide the outcasts, bewray not 
him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with 
thee ; Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face 
of the spoiler." The congregation understood his 
meaning. 

Early Monday morning Kellond and Kirk rode 
into New Haven, where the people met them with 
surly faces. They had to wait until Governor Leete 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS 59 

arrived, and when he did he refused to take any 
steps in the matter until he had called the freemen 
together. The two pursuers, now growing angry, 
told the governor flatly that it looked to them as if 
he wanted the regicides to escape. Spurred on by 
this the governor called the magistrates together, 
but their decision was that they would have to call 
a meeting of the general court. 

More exasperated than ever, the two hunters 
spoke plainly to Governor Leete. They pointed out 
that he was not behaving as loyally as the governors 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut had ; they warned 
him against giving aid to traitors, and then they 
flatly asked whether he meant to obey King Charles 
or not. 

"We honor His Majesty," answered Governor 
Leete, " but we have tender consciences." 

The pursuers lodged at a little inn in New Haven. 
There the governor went that evening, and taking 
one of them by the hand, said, " I wish I had been a 
plowman, and had never been in ofifice, since I find 
it so weighty." 

" Will you own His Majesty or no ? " demanded 
the two men from Massachusetts. 

" We would first know whether His Majesty would 
own us," was the governor's guarded answer. 

The officers of New Haven would not help them, 
the people were openly hostile, and so Kellond and 
Kirk left the colony, without having dared to search 
a single house. They went south to Manhattan 



6o HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Island, where the Dutch Governor Stuyvesant re- 
ceived them very politely, and promised to help 
them arrest the fugitives if the latter came to New 
Netherland. Then they went back to Boston, baffled 
of their quarry. 

Now when the Indian messenger had come to 
New Haven the fugitive judges had fled from the 
town and spent the night at a mill two miles away. 
Then they went to a place called " Hatchet Harbor," 
where they stayed a couple of days, and from there 
to a cave upon a mountain that they called Provi- 
dence Hill. This cave, ever since known as the 
"Judges* Cave," was a splendid hiding place. On 
the top of the mountain stood a group of pillars of 
trap rock, like a grove of trees. These rocks slanted 
inwards and so formed a room, the door of which 
could be hidden with boughs. Here the regicides 
hid for almost a month. A friend named Sperry, 
who lived in the neighborhood, brought them food. 
Sometimes he sent the provisions by his small son, 
who left the basket on the stump of a tree near the 
top of the "mountain. The boy couldn't understand 
what became of the food and how it happened that 
he always found the basket empty when he returned 
for it the next day. The only answer the cautious 
father would give him was, " There's somebody at 
work in the woods who wants the food." 

That part of the country near the " Judges' Cave " 
was full of wild animals. One night the regicides 
were visited by a panther that thrust its head in at 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS 6i 

the door of their cave and roared at them. One of 
the judges fled down the mountain to Sperry's house 
and gave the alarm, and the farmer and the fugitives 
hunted the panther the rest of the night. 

After a while the fugitives decided that it would be 
better for their friends in the colony, and particularly 
for Mr. Davenport, if they should give themselves 
up in obedience to the command of King Charles. 
They left their cave and went to Guilford to see 
Governor Leete. But the governor and the other 
officers did not want to surrender them to the king. 
The judges hid in the governor's cellar, and were 
fed from his table, while he considered the best 
course to adopt. The colony of New Haven decided 
that it would not arrest them, and so the fugitives 
moved to the house of a Mr. Tompkins in Milford, 
where they stayed in hiding for two years. 

The people of Milford did not know that the fugi- 
tives were there. One day a girl came to the house 
and happened to sing a ballad lately come from Eng- 
land, that made sport of the fugitive regicides. She 
sang the song in a room just above the one where 
the fugitives were, and they were so amused by the 
words that they asked Mr. Tompkins to have her 
come again and again and sing to her unseen audi- 
ence. 

Officers came out from England in 1664, charged, 
among other duties, with the arrest of the fugitive 
judges, and the friends of the regicides thought it 
best that they should leave Milford for some new 



62 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

hiding place. So in October they set out for the 
small town of Hadley, on the frontier of Massachu- 
setts, a hundred miles from Milford, and so distant 
from Boston, Hartford and New Haven that it was 
thought that no one could trace them there. They 
traveled only at night, lying hidden in the woods 
by day. The places where they stopped they called 
Harbors, and the name still remains attached to one 
of them, now the flourishing town of Meriden, which 
bears the title of Pilgrim's Harbor. They reached 
Hadley in safety, and were taken in at the house of 
John Russell, a clergyman. He gave them room in 
his house, and there they spent the rest of their lives, 
safe from royal agents and spies in the small frontier 
settlement. So three of the men, who, doing their 
duty as they saw it, had voted for the execution of 
King Charles I, found a refuge in the American 
wilderness from the pursuit of his son, King Charles 
II. 

Ten years later a very different sort of man came 
to the colony of Connecticut. King Charles I had 
made large grants in America to his brother the 
Duke of York, and among other territory that which 
had belonged to the Dutch, called New Netherland. 
The Duke of York made Major Edmund Andross, 
afterward Sir Edmund Andross, governor of all his 
territories, and sent him out to New England. With 
full powers from the Duke, Andross expected to do 
about as he pleased, and rule like a king in the new 
world. 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS 63 

By way of making a good start Edmund Andross 
at once laid claim to all the land that had belonged 
to the Dutch and also to that part of Connecticut 
that lay west of the Connecticut River. Unless the 
settlers in that part of Connecticut consented to his 
rule he threatened to invade their land with his sol- 
diers. Now the people of Connecticut had received 
the boundary of their colony in an early grant, and 
though they already had the prospect of a war with 
the Indians under King Philip on their hands, their 
governor and his council determined to resist the 
cutting in two of their colon}''. 

Word came to Hartford that Andross was about 
to land at the port of Saybrook and intended to 
march to Hartford, New Haven and other towns, 
suppress the colonial government and establish his 
own. At once colonial soldiers were sent to Say- 
brook and New London, and Captain Thomas Bull, 
in command at the former place, strengthened the 
fortifications there to resist the Duke of York's new 
governor, 

July 9, 1675, the people of Saybrook saw an armed 
fleet heading for their fort. The men hurried to the 
fort and put themselves under the command of Cap- 
tain Bull. Then a letter came from the governor at 
Hartford telling them what to do. " And if so be 
those forces on board should endeavor to land at 
Saybrook," so ran the order, " you are in His 
Majesty's name to forbid their landing. Yet if they 
should offer to land, you are to wait their landing 



64 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

and to command them to leave their arms on board ; 
and then you may give them leave to land for neces- 
sary refreshing, peaceably, but so that they return on 
board again in a convenient time." 

Major Andross sent a request that he might be 
allowed to land and meet the officers of Saybrook. 
The request was granted, and Captain Bull, with the 
principal men of the town, met the Englishman and 
his officers on the beach. Captain Bull stated the 
orders he had received from the governor of Con- 
necticut. Andross, with great haughtiness, waved 
the orders aside, and told his clerk to read aloud the 
commission he held from the Duke of York. 

But Captain Bull was not easily cowed. He or- 
dered the clerk to stop his reading of the commis- 
sion. The surprised clerk hesitated a minute, then 
went on with the reading. " Forbear ! " thundered 
the captain, in a tone that startled even Major An- 
dross. 

The major, however, haughty and overbearing 
though he was, could not help but admire the other 
man's determined manner. " What is your name ? " 
he asked. 

" My name is Bull, sir," was the answer. 

" Bull ! " said Andross. " It is a pity that your 
horns are not tipped with silver." 

Then, seeing that the captain and his men would 
not listen to his commission from the Duke of York, 
Andross returned to his small boat, and a few hours 
later his fleet sailed away from the harbor. 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS 65 

The colony of Connecticut, like those of Massa- 
chusetts and New York, now had a checkered career. 
Governor John Winthrop, who had done so much 
for his people, died. False reports of the colony 
were carried to England, the people were accused 
of harboring pirates and other outlaws. Finally, in 
1686, Andross, now Sir Edmund Andross, was given 
a royal commission as governor of New England. 

Sir Edmund went to Boston, and from there sent 
a message to the governor of Connecticut saying 
that he had received an order from the king to re- 
quire Connecticut to give up its charter as a colony. 
The governor and council answered that, though 
they wished to do the king's bidding in all things, 
they begged that they might keep the original 
grants of their charter. 

Sir Edmund's answer to that was to go to Hart- 
ford. October 31, 1687, he entered Hartford, ac- 
companied by several gentlemen of his suite and 
with a body-guard of some sixty soldiers. He meant 
to take the charter in spite of all protests. 

The governor and council met him with all marks 
of respect, but it was clear that they were not over- 
pleased to see him. Andross marched into the hall 
where the General Assembly was in session, de- 
manded the charter, and declared that their present 
government was dissolved. Governor Treat pro- 
tested, and eloquently told of all the early hardships 
of the colonists, their many wars with the Indians, 
the privations they had endured. Finally he said 



66 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

that it was like giving up his life to surrender the 
charter that represented rights and privileges they 
had so dearly bought and enjoyed for so long a 
time. 

Sir Edmund listened to the governor's speech at- 
tentively. Looking about him at the citizens who 
had gathered in the Assembly Hall he realized that 
it would be well for him to obtain the charter as 
quietly as he could, and without waking too much 
spirit of resentment in the men of Hartford. Gov- 
ernor Treat's speech was long, the sun set, twilight 
came on, and still the charter of the colony had not 
been handed over to Sir Edmund. 

The governor and the people knew that Sir Ed- 
mund meant to have the charter ; he himself was pre- 
pared to stay there until they should hand the paper 
over to him. Candles were brought into the hall 
and their flickering light showed the spirited gov- 
ernor still arguing with the determined, haughty Sir 
Edmund. More people pressed into the room to 
hear the governor's words. Sir Edmund Andross 
glanced at the crowd ; now they seemed peaceful 
people, not of the kind likely to make trouble. 

Sir Edmund had listened to Governor Treat long 
enough. He grew impatient. He slapped his hand 
on the table in front of him, and stated again that 
he required the people of Connecticut to hand him 
over their charter, and that at once. The governor 
saw that Sir Edmund's patience was at an end, and 
whispered a word to his secretary. The secretary 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS 67 

left the room, and when he returned he brought the 
precious charter in his hand. 

The charter was laid on the table in full view of 
Sir Edmund and the men of the Assembly and the 
people who had crowded into the hall. Sir Edmund 
smiled ; he had taught these stubborn Connecticut 
colonists a well-deserved lesson. He leaned forward 
in his chair, reaching out his hand for the parch- 
ment. At that very instant the candles went out, 
and the room was in total darkness. 

No one spoke, there were no threats of violence, 
no motion toward Sir Edmund. In silence they 
waited for the relighting of the candles. 

The clerks relighted the candles. Andross looked 
again at the table. The charter had disappeared. 
Andross stared at Governor Treat and the governor 
stared back at him, apparently as much amazed as 
was Sir Edmund at the disappearance. Then both 
men began to hunt. They looked in every corner 
of the room where the charter might have been 
hidden. But the charter had vanished in the time 
between the going-out of the candles and their re- 
lighting. 

Sir Edmund, baffled and indignant, hid his anger 
as well as he could, and with his gentlemen and 
soldiers left the Assembly Room. Next day he took 
over control of the colony, and issued a proclama- 
tion that stated that by the king's order the govern- 
ment of the colony of Connecticut was annexed to 
that of Massachusetts and the other colonies under 



68 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

his rule. The orders he gave were harsh and tyran- 
nical, and the people of the colony had little cause 
to like him. 

What had become of the charter? When Gov- 
ernor Wellys, a former governor of Connecticut, 
had come to America he had sent his steward, a 
man named Gibbons, to prepare a country home for 
him. Gibbons chose a suitable place, and was cut- 
ting trees on a hill where the governor's house was 
to stand when some Indians from the South Meadow 
came up to him and begged him not to cut down 
an old oak that was there. " It has been the guide 
of our ancestors for centuries," said the leader of the 
Indians, "as to the time of planting our corn. 
When the leaves are of the size of a mouse's ears, 
then is the time to put the seed in the ground." 

The tree was allowed to stand, and flourished, in 
spite of a large hole near the base of its trunk. 

When the candles had been blown out in the As- 
sembly Hall Captain Wadsworth had seized the 
charter and stolen away with it. He knew of the 
oak with the hole that seemed purposely made for 
concealing things. There he took the charter and 
hid it, and neither Andross nor his men ever laid 
hands on it. The tree became famous in history as 
the Charter Oak. 

As long as James II was king of England Andross 
and other despotic governors like him had their 
way in the colonies. But when James was driven 
from his throne by William, the Prince of Orange, 



GOVERNOR ANDROSS 69 

conditions changed. William sent a messenger 
with a statement of his new plans for the govern- 
ment of New England, and when the messenger 
reached Boston he was welcomed with open arms. 
Andross, however, had the man arrested and thrown 
into jail. Then on April 18, 1689, the people of 
Boston and the neighboring towns rose in rebellion, 
drove Andross and his fellows from their seats in 
the government and put back the old officers they 
had had before. They thought that William III 
would treat them more justly than James II had 
done, and they were not disappointed. 

Already, in their protection of the regicides and 
in their saving of their charter, the people of Con- 
necticut had shown that love of liberty that was to 
burst forth more bravely than ever in the days of the 
Revolution. 



IV 

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN NATHANIEL 
BACON AND SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY 

{Virginia, i6j6) 

I 

There was great excitement in that part of the 
American colony of Virginia where Edmund Porter 
Hved. It was in the month of May, 1676, and the 
place was the country just below the settlement of 
Henricus, on the James River, as one went down- 
stream toward the capital city of Jamestown. The 
Porters had a plantation not very far from Curies, 
which was the name of the place where their friend 
Nathaniel Bacon lived ; and Nathaniel Bacon seemed 
to be the centre of the exciting events that were 
taking place. 

Nathaniel Bacon was a young man, of a good 
family in England, who had come out to Virginia 
with his wife, and settled at Curies on the James. 
He had another estate farther up the river, a place 
called •' Bacon Quarter Branch," where his overseer 
and servants looked after his affairs, and to which 
he could easily ride in a morning from his own 
home, or go in his barge on the James, unless he 
objected to being rowed seven miles around the pen- 



BACON AND BP:RKELEY 71 

insula at Dutch Gap. He was popular with his 
neighbors, and seemed as quiet as any of them 
until trouble with the Indians in the spring of that 
year made him declare that he was going to see 
whether the governor would protect the farms along 
the river, and if the governor wouldn't, then he had 
a mind to take the matter into his own hands. 

Now Edmund, who was a well-grown boy of six- 
teen, wanted to be wherever there was excite- 
ment, and so spent as much time as he could at 
Curies. He was out in the meadow back of the 
house, watching one of the men break in a colt, 
when a messenger came with news that Indians had 
attacked Mr. Bacon's other estate ; killed his over- 
seer and one of his servants, and were carrying fire 
and bloodshed along the frontier. The news spread 
like wild-fire, as news of Indian raids always did, for 
there was nothing else so fear-inspiring to the white 
settlers. Edmund jumped on his pony, and rode 
home as fast as he could to tell his father. Then 
father and son, each taking a gun, with powder-horn 
and bullet-pouch, dashed back to Nathaniel Bacon's. 
Other planters had already gathered there, armed 
and ready to ride on the track of the Indians. 
There was much talk and debate ; some wanted to 
know whether Governor Berkeley, down the river at 
Jamestown, would send soldiers to protect the plan- 
tations farther up the James ; others wondered 
whether the governor, who was not very prompt or 
ready in dealing with the Indians in this far-off part 



72 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

of the colony, would be willing to commission the 
planters to take the war into their own hands. In 
the midst of all the talk Bacon himself appeared, 
and the crowd of horsemen called on him to take 
command, it being known he had often said openly 
that he intended to protect Curies and his other 
farms from the redskins. 

Bacon agreed to lead his neighbors, but told them 
he thought it would be best to send a messenger to 
Sir William Berkeley, and ask for the governor's 
commission. A man was sent at once down the 
river to Jamestown, and the neighbors rode home to 
wait for the governor's answer. Next afternoon 
they met again at Curies, and heard the answer Sir 
William Berkeley sent. It was very polite, and 
spoke highly of Nathaniel Bacon and his neighbors. 
It further said that the times were very troubled, that 
the governor was anxious to keep on good terms 
with the Indians, and was afraid that the outcome 
of an attack on them might be dangerous, and 
urged Mr. Bacon, for his own good interests, not to 
ride against them. He did not actually refuse the 
commission that Bacon had asked for, but, what 
amounted to the same matter, he did not send it. 

The horsemen were very angry. Sir William 
Berkeley, a man seventy years old, and safe at 
Jamestown, might care little what the Indians did, 
but the men whose plantations were threatened 
cared a great deal. Again they urged Bacon to 
lead them, and he, nothing loath now that he had 



BACON AND BERKELEY 73 

set the matter fairly before the governor, jumped 
into his saddle and put himself at the head of the 
troop. All were armed, some had fought Indians 
before ; in those days such a ride was not uncom- 
mon. A few boys rode with their fathers, and 
among them Edmund Porter. 

Bacon's band rode fast, and were marching 
through the woods of Charles City when a messen- 
ger came dashing after them. The company 
stopped to hear him. He said that he came from 
Sir William, and that Sir William ordered the band 
to disperse, on pain of being treated as rebels 
against his authority. The message made it clear 
that they would ride on at their peril. 

This threat cooled the ardor of some, but not of 
many. Bacon snapped his fingers at the governor's 
messenger, and rode on, with fifty-seven other fol- 
lowers. They were not the men to leave their fron- 
tiers unguarded, no matter what Sir William might 
call them. 

Bacon led on to the Falls, and there he found the 
Indians entrenched on a hill. Several white men 
went forward to parley, but as they advanced an In- 
dian in ambush fired a shot at the rear of the party, 
and their captain gave the word to attack. Edmund 
and a few others formed a rear- guard by the river, 
while the rest waded through a stream ; climbed the 
slope ; stormed and set fire to the Indian stockade, 
and so blew up a great store of powder that the red 
men had collected. The rout of the marauding In- 



74 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

dians was complete, and when the fighting was over 
one hundred and fifty of them had been killed, with 
only a loss of three in Bacon's party. Victory had 
been won, the Indians were driven back to the 
mountains, leaving the plantations along the James 
safe, for some time at least. With a train of captives. 
Bacon and his neighbors rode homeward. The Por- 
ters went to their plantation, and the others scattered 
to their houses farther down the river. Edmund and 
his father thought the excitement was over, and every- 
body in the neighborhood had only words of the 
highest praise for the gallant Nathaniel Bacon. 

Sir William Berkeley, however, was very angry, 
and he was a man of his word. He had sent his 
messenger to say that if Bacon marched against the 
Indians he should consider Bacon a rebel and the 
men who rode with him rebels as well. He meant 
to be master in Virginia, and therefore as soon as 
the news of what was called the Battle of Bloody 
Run came to him he made his plans to teach all re- 
bellious colonists a lesson. He called for a company 
of officers and horsemen and set out hot foot, in spite 
of his seventy years, to capture the upstart Bacon 
and make an example of him. 

But Sir William had not ridden far when disquiet- 
ing news reached him. The people along the coast 
had heard how Bacon had sent to the governor for a 
commission and had been refused, and they also 
knew how he had fought the Indians in spite of the 
governor's warning. They were proud of him ; they 



BACON AND BERKFLEY 75 

liked his dash and determination, and they meant to 
stand by him, no matter what Sir William might 
have to say. 

The governor, who had always had his own way 
in Virginia, was thoroughly furious now. There 
were rebels before him, and rebels behind him, for 
that was the name he gave to all who dared to dis- 
pute his orders. But with the lower country in a 
blaze he didn't dare attend to Nathaniel Bacon then, 
so he ordered his troop of horse to countermarch, 
and galloped back to Jamestown as fast as he could 

go- 
When he reached his capital he found it in a 

tumult ; word came to him that all the counties 
along the lower James and the York Rivers had re- 
belled. It looked as if the colony were facing a civil 
war like the one that had broken out in England 
thirty years before. Then, realizing that this was no 
time for anger, but for cool, calm words. Sir William 
mended his manners. He didn't pour oil on the 
colonists' fire ; instead he met their demands half- 
way. When the leaders of the colonists protested 
that the forts on the border were more apt to be a 
danger to them than a help. Sir William agreed 
that the forts should be dismantled. When the lead- 
ers said that the House of Burgesses, which was the 
name of the Virginia parliament, no longer repre- 
sented the people, but in fact defied the people's 
will. Sir William answered that the House of Bur- 
gesses should be dissolved and the people given a 



76 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

chance to send new representatives to it. And the 
governor kept his word after the angry planters had 
gone back to their homes. He didn't want such a 
civil war in Virginia as the one that had cost King 
Charles the First his throne in England. 

Sir William might have forgiven Nathaniel Ba- 
con's disobedience, and forgotten all about it, but 
the owner of Curies Manor bobbed up into public 
notice again almost immediately. As soon as orders 
were sent out through the colony that new elections 
were to be held for the House of Burgesses, as the 
governor had promised, Bacon declared that he was 
a candidate to represent Henrico County. He was 
so popular now that when the election was held he 
was chosen by a very large vote. Many men voting 
for him who had no right to vote at all, according to 
the law, which said that only freeholders, or men 
who owned land, should have the right to vote in 
such a case. So now the man who had been called 
a rebel by the governor was going to Jamestown to 
sit in the House of Burgesses and help make laws 
for the colony. Many a man might have hesitated 
to do that, but not such a good fighter as Mr. Bacon. 

The new burgesses were summoned to meet at 
Jamestown early that June, and they traveled there 
through the wilderness in many ways. Some rode 
on horseback, fording or swimming the numerous 
streams and rivers, for bridges were few, some came 
by coach, and some went down the river by barge 
or by sloop, the easiest way for those who lived near 



BACON AND BERKELEY -jj 

the James. Bacon chose the last way, and on a 
bright morning in June left his house at Curies, and 
with thirty neighbors sailed down the river. Mr. 
Porter and Edmund went with him, for the father 
had often promised his son to take him to James- 
town, and this seemed a good opportunity. 

The voyage started pleasantly, but ended in dis- 
aster. Sir William now considered himself doubly 
flouted by this man from Curies, and vowed that 
the rebel Bacon should never sit in the new House 
of Burgesses. As the sloop came quietly sailing 
down to Jamestown a ship that was lying at anchor 
in front of the town trained its cannon on the smaller 
vessel, and the sheriff, who was on board the ship, 
sent men to the sloop to arrest Bacon and certain of 
his friends. There was no use in resisting ; the can- 
non could blow the sloop out of the water at a word. 
Bacon surrendered to the sheriff's men, and he and 
the others who were wanted were landed and 
marched up to the State House, while Edmund Por- 
ter and the others rowed themselves ashore, wonder- 
ing what was going to happen to their friend. 

Governor Berkeley was at the State House when 
Bacon was brought in. Each of the two men was 
quick-tempered and haughty, but they managed to 
keep their anger out of their words. Sir William 
said coldly, " Mr. Bacon, have you forgot to be a 
gentleman ? " 

Bacon answered in the same tone, " No, may it 
please your honor." 



7% HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

" Then," said Sir William, " I'll take your parole." 
That was all that was said, and Bacon was re- 
leased on his word as a gentleman that he would do 
no more mischief. Doubtless the haughty governor 
would have liked to lodge the other man in jail, but 
he didn't dare attempt that, for the newly elected 
burgesses were reaching Jamestown every hour. 
Further almost all of them were known to side with 
Bacon, and in addition the town was fast filling with 
planters from the counties along the river that had 
revolted against the governor. So for the second 
time that spring Sir William saw the advantage of 
bending his stiff pride in order to ride out the storm. 
The governor knew, however, that Bacon would 
be a thorn in his side unless he could be made to 
bend the knee to his own authority. So Sir Will- 
iam went to Bacon's cousin, a man who was very 
rich and prominent in the colony, and a member of 
the governor's council. He urged this man, who 
was known as Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, Senior, to 
go to his cousin, Nathaniel, Junior, and try to in- 
duce him to yield to Sir William's wishes. Colonel 
Bacon agreed, and was so successful with his argu- 
ments that the younger man, proud and headstrong 
as he was, at last consented to write out a statement, 
admitting that he had been in the wrong in dis- 
obeying Sir William Berkeley's orders, and to read 
it on his knees before the members of the Assembly, 
which was another name for the House of Bur- 
gesses. This w^as a great victory for the governor. 



BACON AND BERKELEY 79 

Events had followed one another fast. In the space 
of little more than a week the owner of Curies Plan- 
tation had been proclaimed a rebel, had marched 
against the Indians and beaten them, had been a 
candidate for the House of Burgesses and been 
elected, had sailed down to Jamestown, been ar- 
rested, and paroled, and was now to admit on his 
knees that he had indeed been a rebel. 

On June 5, 1676, Bacon went to the State House. 
The governor and his council sat with the bur- 
gesses, and Sir William Berkeley spoke to them 
about recent border fights between Virginians and 
Indians. He denounced the killing of six Indian 
chiefs in Maryland, who, he said, had come to treat 
of peace with white soldiers, and he added, " If they 
had killed my grandfather and grandmother, my 
father and mother and all my friends, yet if they had 
come to treat of peace, they ought to have gone in 
peace." 

Sir William sat down ; then after a few minutes 
stood up again. " If there be joy in the presence of 
the angels over one sinner that repenteth," said he, 
with solemn humor, " there is joy now, for we have 
a penitent sinner come before us. Call Mr, Bacon." 

Bacon came in, and knelt down before the gov- 
ernor and his council and his fellow Virginians. 
He read from a paper he held, confessing that he 
had been guilty of " unlawful, mutinous, and rebel- 
lious practices," and promised that if the governor 
would pardon him he would act "dutifully, faith- 



8o HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

fully, and peaceably," under a penalty of two thou- 
sand pounds sterling. He pledged his whole estate 
for his good behavior for one year. 

When Bacon had finished, Sir William said, 
" God forgive you ; I forgive you." And to make 
the words more impressive he repeated them three 
times. 

" And all that were with him," said Colonel Cole, 
a member of the council, meaning the men who 
had rebelled with Bacon and fought the Indians. 

" Yes, and all that were with him," the governor 
agreed. Then Sir W^illiam added, " Mr. Bacon, if 
you will live civilly but till next quarter-day, — but 
till next quarter-day," he repeated the words, " I'll 
promise to restore you to your place there I " and he 
pointed to the seat which Bacon had sometimes oc- 
cupied during meetings of the council. 

All was peace again ; the black sheep had repented 
and been allowed to return to the fold. It was gen- 
erally understood that in return for Bacon's apology 
the governor would now give him the commission 
he had asked for before, the commission as " Gen- 
eral of the Indian Wars," which would allow him to 
protect outlying plantations against Indian raids. 
Sir William pardoned the rebel on Saturday, and 
" General Bacon." as many people in Jamestown 
already spoke of him, took up his lodgings at the 
house of a Mr. Lawrence, there to wait until his ex- 
pected commission should be sent him early the 
next week. Mr. Porter and his son, and many of 



BACON AND BERKELEY 8l 

the friends who had come in Bacon's sloop, took 
rooms at near-by houses, for their leader might be 
going back to Curies as soon as he had his com- 
mission, and they wanted to go with him. 

Monday came and Tuesday, but no commission 
arrived from Sir William. On Wednesday there 
was no message for Bacon from the governor. In- 
stead rumors began to spread abroad. Mr. Lawrence, 
who had an old grudge against Sir William, was re- 
ported to be busy with some plot against him ; men 
of doubtful reputation were seen about the house, 
and it was whispered that possibly there might be 
further trouble. Edmund heard these rumors ; he 
knew that there were men in Jamestown who wanted 
Nathaniel Bacon to defy the governor, and he kept 
his eyes and ears wide open. Then one morning, 
as he and his father came out from the house where 
they were staying, they met a crowd of their friends. 
'* Bacon is fled 1 " cried these men. *' Bacon is fled I " 

Edmund listened to the excited words. Sir Will- 
iam had been frightened as he heard that more and 
more planters were flocking into Jamestown, he 
doubted that Bacon meant to keep his word, he 
knew that Lawrence's house was a hot-bed of dis- 
order, and he determined that he would crush any 
rebellion before it got a start, and put the popular 
leader where he could do no harm. Bacon's cousin, 
the colonel, who was fond of his kinsman, though 
he disapproved of what he had done, had sent word 
the night before to Nathaniel, bidding him fly for his 



82 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

life. At daybreak the governor's officers had gone 
to Lawrence's house ; but the man they wanted was 
gone ; he had fled into the country, wisely heeding 
his cousin's warning. 

" Bacon is fled I " were the words that sped 
through Jamestown that June morning. And many 
who heard the words were glad, for now they hoped 
that the rebel would raise a force and overthrow Sir 
William, who had made many enemies in his long 
and strict rule as governor. Men stole away from 
the capital in twos and threes, some by the river, 
more on horseback through the country. They 
were afraid to stay lest Berkeley should put them in 
irons as partisans of Bacon's. Mr. Porter found a 
man with horses to sell, bought two, and with his 
son rode out of Jamestown before noon. West along 
the river bank they galloped. Bacon would make 
for Henrico County, and there they wanted to join 
him. '* And I may ride with you and General 
Bacon, father ? " Edmund begged. 

" I don't know," said the father. " This may be 
more serious business than looking after the rear- 
guard in a skirmish with Indians." 

" But I'm almost a man, father," Edmund urged. 
"And even if I didn't fight, there's other things I 
could do." 

" I hope there'll be no fighting. It's bad when set- 
tlers turn their guns against each other. We'll have 
to wait till we find Nat, Edmund, and learn what he's 
going to do. If it's a fight it's a fight for liberty 



BACON AND BERKELEY 83 

and the safety of our homes. The governor's wrong ; 
he hasn't treated us fair." 

All that day they rode through the river country, 
and wherever they came to settlements they found 
armed men mounting, for the news had spread 
rapidly that Nathaniel Bacon was raising an army 
to fight the governor. 

II 

From big plantations and from small farms, from 
manor-houses in the lowlands and from log cabins 
in the uplands, grown men and half-grown boys, 
armed with guns or swords, hurried to join General 
Bacon, who was sending out his call for recruits 
from his headquarters up the James River. The 
colonists were a hardy lot, used to hunting and 
fighting, and well pleased now at the prospect of 
upsetting the tyrannical governor at Jamestown. 
Within three days after Bacon's escape from the cap- 
ital he was at the head of about six hundred men, 
stirring them with his speeches, for he was a very 
fine and fiery orator, until they were ready to follow 
wherever he led. The Porters, father and son, suc- 
ceeded in joining his ranks, and when the young 
commander set out on his march to Jamestown they 
rode among his men. 

What was Sir William Berkeley doing meantime? 
Bacon was a fighter, but the white-haired governor 
was a fighter also. He sent riders from Jamestown 
to summon what were called the " train-bands " of 



84 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

York and Gloucester, counties that lay along Chesa- 
peake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. But the spirit 
of rebellion had spread from the plantations along 
the James down to the seaboard settlements, and only 
a hundred soldiers, and not all of them very loyal 
to the governor, answered his summons. They 
marched so slowly that Bacon reached Jamestown 
before they were in sight of the town. At two in 
the afternon the rebel leader entered the capital at 
the head of his men and drew up his troops on the 
green, not an arrow's flight from the State House 
where he had knelt for the governor's pardon less 
than ten days before. 

At his order his men sentineled the roads, seized 
all the firearms they could find, and disarmed or ar- 
rested all men coming into Jamestown by land or 
river, except such as joined their own ranks. 

The little capital was in a turmoil. Sir William 
and his council sat in a room at the State House, 
debating what course to take. They ordered a 
drummer to summon the burgesses, and those bur- 
gesses who were not already in Bacon's army came 
trooping to the State House. It seemed as if war 
was to break out then and there. Bacon marched 
across the green with a file of fusileers on either side, 
and reached the corner of the State House. Sir 
William and his council came out, and the two 
leaders fronted one another, Bacon fairly cool and 
collected, but the aged governor raging at this af- 
front to his dignity. 



BACON AND BERKELEY 85 

Sir William walked up to Bacon, and tearing 
open the lace at the breast of his coat, cried angrily, 
" Here 1 Shoot me 1 'Fore God, a fair mark — 
shoot 1 " 

Bacon answered calmly, " No, may it please your 
honor ; we will not hurt a hair of your head, nor of 
any other man's. We are come for a commission to 
save our lives from the Indians, which you have so 
often promised, and now we will have it before we 

go." 

But though his words were mild. Bacon was really 
very angry. As the governor, still raging and shak- 
ing his fist, turned and walked back to the State 
House with his council. Bacon followed him with 
his soldiers, one hand on his sword-hilt, the other 
threatening Berkeley. As the governor and coun- 
cil continued their retreat, Bacon and his men grew 
more threatening. The leader shook his fist, the 
fusileers cocked their guns. And as they came to 
the windows of the room where the burgesses sat 
some of the soldiers pointed their guns at the men 
inside, shouting again and again, " We will have it I 
We will have it I " 

Presently one of the burgesses waved his handker- 
chief from the window, and called out, " You shall 
have it 1 You shall have it ! " by which he meant 
the commission that Bacon wanted. The soldiers 
uncocked their guns, and stood back, waiting further 
orders from their leader. Bacon had grown as an- 
gry meantime as the governor had been before, and 



86 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

had cried, " I'll kill governor, council. Assembly 
and all, and then I'll sheathe my sword in my own 
heart's blood." And it was afterward said that Ba- 
con had ordered his men, if he drew his sword, to 
fire on the burgesses. But the handkerchief waved 
from the window, and the words, " You shall have 
it 1 " calmed him somewhat, and soon afterward he 
went into the State House and discussed the matter 
fully with Sir William and his council. 

Later that same day Bacon went to the room of 
the burgesses and repeated his request for a commis- 
sion. The speaker answered that it was " Not in 
their province, or power, nor of any other save the 
king's vicegerent, their governor, to grant it." Ba 
con replied by saying that the purpose of his coming 
to Jamestown was to secure some safe way of pro- 
tecting the settlers from the Indians, to reduce the 
very heavy taxes, and to right the calamities that 
had come upon the country. The burgesses gave 
him no definite answer, and he left, much dissatis- 
fied. Next day, however. Sir William and his 
council yielded, Nathaniel Bacon was appointed 
general and commander-in-chief against the In- 
dians, and pardon was granted to him and all his 
followers for their acts against the Indians in the 
west. 

This was a great triumph for the rebel leader. 
Berkeley hated and feared him as much as ever, but 
had seen that he must pocket his pride in the face 
of such a popular uprising. 



BACON AND BERKELEY 87 

The owner of Curies Plantation was now com- 
mander-in-chief of the Virginia troops, and although 
it was intended that he should use his army only in 
defending the colony from Indian attacks, it was gen- 
erally believed that he could do whatever he wished 
with his men. The colony was practically under his 
absolute control. The colonists would do whatever 
he ordered, and as they hailed Bacon's leadership 
they paid less and less heed to Sir William Berkeley. 
And the governor, knowing that many adventurers, 
many men of doubtful reputation, and many who 
were his own enemies, were now much in Bacon's 
company, feared for their influence on the impulsive 
young commander. 

Having seen their neighbor win his commission, 
Mr. Porter and Edmund rode back to their own plan- 
tation, and took up the work that was always wait- 
ing to be done in summer. They were busy, and 
heard only from time to time of what Nathaniel 
was doing. They knew he was planning to take the 
field against the Indians with a good-sized troop of 
men. 

Full of energy, and eager to show the colony that 
he was in truth a great commander, Bacon made his 
headquarters near West Point, at the head of the 
York River, a place frequently called " De la War," 
from Lord Delaware, who belonged to the West fam- 
ily. He disarmed all the men who opposed his 
command, and then set out, with an army of be- 
tween five hundred and a thousand men, to attack 



88 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the Indians in the neighborhood of the head waters 
of the Pamunkey. His scouts scoured the woods 
and drove out all hostile Indians ; he cleared that part 
of the frontier of red men, and in a short time had 
made the border plantations safer than they had ever 
been before. He had justified all his friends had 
said of him, he had acted as a loyal Virginian, and 
he had proved his worth as general-in-chief of the 
colony's army. 

Edmund Porter, going to the store at the cross- 
roads on a July day, heard men discussing news 
that had just come from Jamestown. The rumor 
was that, despite Nathaniel Bacon's success as a 
commander. Sir William Berkeley had again de- 
nounced him as a rebel and traitor, and had fled to 
York River and set up his banner there not only as 
governor, but as general also. The report proved 
true. Sir William had nursed his anger for a short 
time, and now it flamed forth afresh and even more 
bitterly than before. In spite of Bacon's success he 
was still a rebel in the governor's eyes ; he had forced 
the Assembly at Jamestown to do his bidding, and 
had acted as if the colony belonged to Bacon and 
his followers, and not to the king of England and 
the royal officers. This matter the governor meant 
to decide when he flew his flag at York River and 
summoned all loyal Virginians to come to his aid. 
Some came ; there were many planters who honestly 
believed that Berkeley was in the right and Bacon 
in the wrong ; but the great mass of the people 



BACON AND BERKELEY 89 

sided with the latter, and it began to look as if Sir 
William might still call himself the governor, but 
would find that he had no people to govern. 

Then, when the old Cavalier, proud in his defeat 
as the Cavaliers of England had been when the 
Roundheads beat them in battle after battle, was 
beginning to see his men desert him, a messenger 
came post-haste from Gloucester County, to the 
north of the York River, with word that the planters 
there were still loyal to the king's governor, and 
begged him to come to their county and to protect 
them from the Indians. The loyalists of Gloucester, 
some of whom Bacon had disarmed, were ready to 
rally round Sir William. 

Sir William was overjoyed ; he went to Gloucester 
at once, he flew his flag there, and called all loyalists 
to join him. Twelve hundred people came on the 
day Sir William set. But, with the exception of the 
wealthy planters who had sent the message, even 
these men of Gloucester were unwilling to take the 
field against General Bacon, as Sir William wanted. 
Some of them said that Bacon was fighting the com- 
mon enemy, the Indians, with great success, and 
that as good Virginians they ought to help, and not 
to hinder, his work. The governor urged and 
argued with them, but as he talked men began to 
leave, muttering *' Bacon 1 Bacon ! Bacon ! " as 
they went. A short stay showed that Sir William 
was not to find, even in Gloucester, the support he 
wished. Where could he go ? There was one 



90 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

place where men might yet listen to him, the dis- 
tant country that was sometimes called the " King- 
dom of Accomac." It lay across Chesapeake Bay, 
remote from the rest of Virginia. The governor 
took ship and sailed across the thirty miles that 
divided it from the mainland, a romantic, apparently 
defeated figure, like some of the English Royalists 
who fled before the victorious troops of Oliver 
Cromwell. 

On July 29, 1676, Berkeley posted his proclama- 
tion, declaring that Nathaniel Bacon was a traitor 
and outlaw. Bacon heard the news as he was in 
camp on the upper waters of the James. He was 
hurt at what he felt was the governor's injustice to 
him. To a friend he said, " It vexes me to the heart 
to think that while I am hunting wolves, tigers, and 
foxes (meaning Indians), which daily destroy our 
harmless sheep and lambs, that I and those with me 
should be pursued with a full cry, as a more savage 
or a no less ravenous beast." 

The general marched his men down the river, 
arresting such as were known to side with the 
governor, but leaving their property unharmed. 
Presently he made his quarters at Middle-Plantation, 
which was situated half-way between Jamestown 
and the York River. Here his riders bivouacked 
around the small group of houses that formed the 
settlement, and their commander set to work to try 
to bring some sort of order out of the tangle into 
which Virginia had fallen. Sir William Berkeley 



BACON AND BERKELEY 91 

was away in the distant country of Accomac, a 
country that was hardly looked upon at that time as 
part of Virginia, and Bacon was to all intents now 
the governor as well as the general-in-chief. Some 
of his friends advised him to do one thing, some 
another. Mr. Drummond, an old enemy of Berke- 
ley's, who knew what Sir William thought of him, 
and who had once said of himself as a rebel, " I am 
in, over shoes ; I will be over boots," now advised 
Bacon to proclaim that Berkeley was deposed from 
the governorship and that Sir Henry Chicheley 
should rule in his place. But Bacon would not go 
so far as that ; he was quick-tempered, but fairly cool 
when it came to planning action, and he knew that 
to overthrow Sir William would make him clearly a 
rebel in the eyes of England. 

So, instead of acting rashly, he issued what he 
called a " Remonstrance," which protested against 
Sir William's calling him and his men traitors and 
rebels, when they were really faithful subjects of His 
Majesty the King of England, and had only taken up 
arms to protect themselves against the savages. 
Besides that, he complained that the colony was not 
well managed, and called on all who were interested 
in Virginia to meet at Middle-Plantation on August 
3d, and make a formal protest to the English king 
and Parliament. 

Many men met at the village on that day, four 
members of the governor's council among them. 
Bacon made a fiery speech, and all agreed to pledge 



92 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

themselves not to aid Sir William Berkeley in any 
attack on General Bacon or his army. Then Bacon 
went further ; he asked the meeting to promise that 
each and every man there would rise in arms against 
Sir William if he should try to resist General Bacon, 
and further that if any soldiers should be sent from 
England to aid Sir William each man there would 
tight such troops until they had a chance to explain 
matters to the king of England. 

That was going too far ; the men had no desire to 
rebel against their king. They were willing to sign 
the first pledge, but not the second. In the midst 
of their arguing Bacon interrupted angrily, " Then 
I will surrender my commission, and let the country 
find some other servant to go abroad and do its 
work ! " he exclaimed. *' Sir William Berkeley hath 
proclaimed me a rebel, and it is not unknown to 
himself that I both can and shall charge ////// with 
no less than treason ! " He added that Governor 
Berkeley would never forgive them for signing either 
part of the pledge, and that they might as well sign 
both as one. Then into the stormy meeting rushed 
a gunner from York Fort, shouting out that the In- 
dians were marching on his fort, that the governor 
had taken all the arms from the fort, and that he had 
no protection for all the people who had fled there 
from the woods of Gloucester in fear of the Indians' 
tomahawks. 

The gunner's words settled the matter. All the 
men agreed to sign the whole pledge, promised to 



BACON AND BERKELEY 93 

fight not only Sir William Berkeley but the king's 
troops as well if they came to Virginia to support 
him. The oath was taken, the paper signed by the 
light of torches near midnight on that third day of 
August, 1676. Just a hundred years later another 
Declaration of Independence was to be signed by 
men, some from this same colony of Virginia, in In- 
dependence Hall in IMiiladelphia, 

The next business was to organize a new govern- 
ment, and Bacon sent word through the colony for 
men to choose representatives to meet early in 
September. Then the general marched off with 
his army to protect the people who had fled to 
York Fort, and try to finish his war with the 
Indians. 

There was great rejoicing throughout the length 
and breadth of Virginia when news came to town 
and plantation that Nathaniel Bacon had set up a 
new government in place of the old one that had 
failed to protect the colony and that had sup- 
pressed the people's liberty. They gloried in their 
defiance of the royal governor. Sarah Drum- 
mond, the wife of Bacon's friend, said to her neigh- 
bors : 

" The child that is unborn shall have cause to re- 
joice for the good that will come by the rising of the 
country ! " 

One of her neighbors objected, " We must expect 
a greater power from England that will certainly be 
our ruin." 



94 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Mrs. Drummond picked up a stick, and breaking 
it in two, said scornfully, " 1 fear the power of Eng- 
land no more than a broken straw 1 " 

And when others shook their heads doubtfully, 
she said bravely, " We will do well enough ! " That 
was the feeling of most of the people. They were 
back of Bacon, and pledged themselves to support 
him through thick and thin. 

At the plantation near Curies Mr. Porter brought 
the news of the oath at Middle-Plantation to his 
family, and his wife and son and the men and women 
who worked for him celebrated the event as a great 
victory for all true Virginians. 

Meantime General Bacon crossed the James River, 
attacked the Appomattox Indians, and killed or 
routed the whole tribe. He then marched along the 
south side of the river toward the Nottoway and 
Roanoke, scattered all the Indians he met, and ulti- 
mately returned north to West Point, where he dis- 
missed all his army but a small detachment, bidding 
the others go back to their own plantations to har- 
vest the autumn crops. 

Scarcely had the men of Bacon's army reached 
their homes when a new message electrified the 
whole countryside. From man to man the news ran 
that Sir William Berkeley, with seventeen ships and 
a thousand men, had come back from far-away Ac- 
comac, had sailed up the James River, had taken 
possession of Jamestown, and was now flying his 
flag above the State House there. 



BACON AND BERKELEY 95 

III 

Sir William Berkeley had met few friends in that 
distant country of Accomac when he had first flown 
there. Rebellion was in the air there as it was on 
the mainland of Virginia, and only a few of the 
planters of the eastern shore welcomed the king's 
governor and agreed to stand by him in his fight 
with Nathaniel Bacon. Still he stuck to his de- 
termination to try conclusions with the rebels, and 
meantime he waited as patiently as he could, hoping 
that the tide of fortune would presently turn in his 
favor. 

General Bacon, when he set out from Middle- 
Plantation to fight the Indians, sent Giles Bland to 
keep Governor Berkeley in Accomac, and, if pos- 
sible, to induce the people there to surrender him. 
Giles Bland started on his mission with two hundred 
and fifty men, and one ship with four guns, com- 
manded by an old sailor, Captain Carver. One 
ship was not enough, however, to carry the men 
across to the Eastern Shore, and so Bland seized 
another that happened to be lying in the York 
River, and that belonged to Captain Laramore, a 
friend of Governor Berkeley. Captain Laramore 
was seized by Bland's men, and locked up in his 
cabin, but after a time he sent word to Bland that 
he would fight with him against the governor, and 
Bland, thinking that the captain was sincere, re- 
stored command of the vessel to him. Two more 
ships were captured, and so it was a fleet of four 



96 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

vessels that ultimately carried the rebel party to the 
Eastern Shore. 

When he saw this fleet nearing Accomac Sir 
William gave up his cause as lost. He knew that 
he must surrender, as King Charles the First of 
England had surrenderd to Oliver Cromwell's men. 
Then suddenly a loophole of escape offered itself 
most unexpectedly. Captain Laramore, still very 
angry with the rebels for having seized his ship in 
such a high-handed manner, secretly sent word to 
Sir William, that if assistance were given him he 
would betray Giles Bland. The fleet was at anchor, 
and Captain Carver had gone ashore to try to find 
the governor. Laramore's offer looked as if it 
might be a trap, but Colonel Philip Ludwell, a 
friend of Berkeley's, offered to vouch for Laramore's 
honesty and moreover to lead the party that was to 
capture Bland. Sir William agreed to this offer, 
and Colonel Ludwell got ready a boat in a near-by 
creek, out of sight of the fleet. At the time set by 
Laramore Colonel Ludwell's crew rowed out toward 
Laramore's ship. Bland thought he came to parley, 
and did not fire. The boat pulled under the ship's 
stern, one of Ludwell's men leaped on board, and 
aiming a pistol at Bland's breast, cried, " You're my 
prisoner I " The crew of the rowboat followed, and 
with the help of Laramore and those sailors who 
sided with him, quickly captured the rebels on 
board. When Captain Carver returned he and his 
crew were seized in the same way, and Colonel 



BACON AND BERKELEY 97 

Ludwell and Laramore took Bland and Carver and 
their officers ashore and presented them to Sir Will- 
iam as his prisoners. 

Sir William was stern in dealing with men he 
considered traitors. He put Giles Bland and his 
officers in chains, and he hung Captain Carver on 
the beach of Accomac. This victory won him re- 
cruits also among the longshoremen, and now one 
of his own followers, Captain Gardener, reached the 
harbor in his ship, the Adam-and-Eve, with ten or 
twelve sloops he had captured along the coast. 
Counting Bland's ships the governor now had a 
fleet numbering some seventeen sail, and on these 
he embarked his army of nearly a thousand men. 
Many of them were merely adventurers, lured by 
Sir William's promise to give them the estates that 
belonged to the men who had taken the oath with 
Bacon at Middle-Plantation. Sir William also pro- 
claimed that the servants of all those who were 
fighting under Bacon's flag should have the prop- 
erty of their masters if they would enlist under the 
king's standard. 

The governor set sail for Jamestown, and reached 
it on the sixth day of September. One of the bra- 
vest of Bacon's commanders. Colonel Hansford, held 
the town with eight or nine hundred men. The 
governor called on Hansford to surrender, promising 
pardon to all except his old enemies, Lawrence and 
Drummond, who were then in Jamestown. Hans- 
ford refused to surrender, but Lawrence and Drum- 



98 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

mond advised him to retreat witli his army, and so 
he evacuated the town during the night. At noon 
next day Sir William landed, and kneeling, gave 
thanks for his safe return to his former capital. 

Colonel Hansford, with Drummond and Law- 
rence, rode north to find General Bacon. They 
found him at West Point and told him the startling 
news that Sir William had come back with an army. 
The fight was to be waged all over again, the ques- 
tion whether Bacon or Berkeley was to rule Virginia 
was yet to be settled. 

Bacon had only a body-guard with him, but he 
mounted in haste and rode toward Jamestown, send- 
ing couriers in all directions to rouse the countryside 
and bring his men to his flag. The message came 
to Curies, and Edmund Porter and his father and 
their neighbors armed and hurried to join their gen- 
eral. So swiftly did the planters take to horse that 
by the time Bacon was in sight of Jamestown he 
was followed by several hundred men. 

Sir William had built an earthwork and palisade 
across the neck of the island where Jamestown 
stands. Bacon ordered his trumpets to sound, and 
then a volley to be fired into the town. No guns 
answered his, and Bacon ordered his troops to throw 
up breastworks in front of the palisade, while he 
made his headquarters at " Greenspring," a house 
that belonged to Sir William. 

Now Bacon, although usually a gentleman, re- 
sorted to a trick that was a blot on his character. 



BACON AND BERKELEY 99 

He sent horsemen through the near-by country to 
bring the wives of some of the men who were fight- 
ing on Berkeley's side into his camp. He sent 
one of these women, under a flag of truce, into the 
town to tell her husband and the others there that 
Bacon meant to place these wives in front of his 
own men while they were building the earthworks, 
so that any shots fired would hit the women first. 
This he did. He made these women stand as a 
shield before his men. The governor's party would 
not fire a shot. The earthworks were finished, and 
then Bacon had the women escorted to a place of 
safety. The trick savored more of the customs of 
some of the Indian tribes the settlers had been fight- 
ing than of the warfare of Virginia gentlemen. 

When the women were gone, Sir William burst 
out of Jamestown with eight hundred men and at- 
tacked Bacon's troopers. But the rabble that made 
up the governor's army, longshoremen, fishermen 
from Accomac, a rabble attracted by the hope of 
plunder, was no match for the well-drilled and well- 
armed planters. At the first touch of steel they 
turned and fled back to the town, leaving a dozen 
wounded on the ground. Sir William lashed them 
with a tongue of scorn, but his anger did no good. 
He saw that he could not rely on this new following, 
and so embarked on his ships again that night, and 
sailed away from Jamestown. 

Bacon marched in, took counsel with his officers, 
and determined that Sir William should make no 



100 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

further use of his capital. Orders were given to set 
fire to all the houses, and shortly the town, founded 
by that great adventurer, John Smith, was only a 
mass of burned and blackened timbers. 

Sir William had sailed down the river, but a cou- 
rier from York County brought word that a force of 
his friends were advancing from the direction of the 
Potomac to attack Bacon's men. So, when James- 
town was only ruins, the general left that place 
and marched at the head of his horsemen to meet 
this new enemy. He was as full of courage as ever, 
but he had caught a fever in the trenches before 
Jamestown, and instead of stopping to cure it he in- 
sisted on pushing on and trying to settle matters 
with his opponents as soon as possible. 

His men crossed the York in boats at Ferry Point 
and marched into Gloucester. There Bacon called 
on all the men of Gloucester who had taken the oath 
with him at Middle-Plantation to join him promptly. 
Another courier arrived, with word that Colonel 
Brent was coming against him with a thousand 
soldiers. Bacon did not wait for any more recruits, 
but marched at once up country in the direction 
of the Rappahannock River. But there was to be 
no fighting. The spirit of rebellion had spread so 
far that even Colonel Brent's men, supposed to be 
very loyal to the governor, deserted to Bacon's 
standard, and Brent himself, with a few faithful fol- 
lowers, had to retire from the field, and leave the 
rebel chief in entire command. 



BACON AND BERKELEY loi 

Bacon went back to Gloucester, and again sum- 
moned the men of that county to meet him at the 
court-house. Six or seven hundred came, but they 
did not want to fulfil their pledge and take up arms, 
it might be against the king's own soldiers. They 
said that they wanted to take no sides in the matter. 
Bacon insisted that they should pledge themselves 
to follow him. The fever had hold of him, his tem- 
per was short, and he spoke in such a domineering 
way that at last the men of Gloucester gave him the 
pledge he wanted. Having had his way Bacon 
closed the meeting, and, seeing that all the main- 
land of Virginia was now under his control, laid 
plans to follow Sir William Berkeley to Accomac, 
where the governor had fled again. 

But now Nathaniel Bacon, at the very moment 
when he had driven all his enemies out of the col- 
ony, and had made himself the master of Virginia, 
fell very ill of the fever he had brought from James- 
town. His old friends, Mr. Porter among them, 
urged him to give up command of his army and 
rest. In spite of his wish to go to Accomac and set- 
tle accounts with Berkeley, he had to take their ad- 
vice. He went to the house of a friend. Major Pate, 
in Gloucester, and there, after a few weeks' illness, 
he died, in October, 1676. 

Sorrowing for their brave leader and friend, Mr. 
Porter and Edmund went back to their plantation on 
the James. They had stood by him when he needed 
their aid, but, in spite of all the exciting events of 



I02 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

that summer, they had not had to take part in any- 
actual fighting except the brief battle with the In- 
dians in May and the short skirmish outside James- 
town. Neither father nor son were known as of- 
ficers in Bacon's army, and as they stayed quietly at 
home the storm that followed blew safely over their 
heads. 

In four months Nathaniel Bacon had risen from 
the position of a little-known planter to be the ruler 
of Virginia, and because the king's governor would 
not give him a commission to march against the In- 
dians who had attacked his farm he had driven the 
governor out of the colony. It was a remarkable 
story, packed full of strange happenings. 

When Bacon died, however, the rebellion fell to 
pieces. A man named Ingram tried to rally his 
army, but the men of Virginia would not fight un- 
der any other leader than Bacon. Sir William Berke- 
ley came back from the county of Accomac with a 
wolfish thirst for vengeance. His chief enemy had 
escaped him, but he meant to take his revenge on 
the other leaders of the rebellion against him. And 
take his revenge he did, not like an honorable gov- 
ernor who wishes to make peace in his country, but 
more like that Judge Jeffreys in England, whose 
name became a byword for cruelty. He captured 
Colonel Hansford, who was a fine Virginian, and 
hung him as a rebel. Lawrence escaped, but Drum- 
mond was caught in his hiding-place in the Chicka- 
hominy swamp, and brought before Sir William. 



BACON AND BERKELEY 103 

" Mr. Drummond," said the governor, " you are 
very welcome 1 I am more glad to see you than 
any man in Virginia. Mr. Drummond, you shall be 
hanged in half an hour ! " 

" When your Honor pleases," Drummond coolly 
replied. 

Drummond was hung, and his brave wife, who 
had broken the stick to show how easily the planters 
could defeat Sir William, was driven into the wilder- 
ness with her children. 

Bland was found in Accomac and executed. Men 
were hung in almost every county, and the settlers 
hated the name of Berkeley more than they hated 
raiding Indians. In all Sir William executed twenty- 
three rebels, as he called them, and King Charles II 
of England, when he heard the report, said indig- 
nantly, " That old fool has hanged more men in that 
naked country than I have done for the murder of 
my father." 

At last the Assembly begged the governor to stop. 
He reluctantly agreed that all the rest of the rebels 
should be pardoned except about fifty leaders. The 
property of these leaders was confiscated, and they 
were sent away from the colony. 

Sir William, however, was no longer popular with 
any in Virginia. Soon afterward he sailed to Eng- 
land, and never came back again to the colony he 
had ruled with an iron hand. Salutes were fired 
and bonfires blazed when he sailed, for the people 
were all still rebels at heart. Other governors came 



I04 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

from England, but they found the Virginians harder ! 

to rule since they had tasted independence in that 
summer of 1676. 

By many boys of Virginia, like Edmund Porter, 
Nathaniel Bacon was always remembered as a gal- ; 

lant hero, one who had fought for them against the • 

tyranny of Sir William Berkeley. 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 

{Maryland^ 1684) 

I 

" I'M riding south to St. Mary's to-morrow, 
Michael," said George Talbot. He gave his horse 
a slap on the flank that sent it toward the stable. 
" Want to come with me, and see something of the 
Bay ? " 

" Yes indeed," said Michael Rowan. " You 
know, Mr. George, I always like to ride with you." 

Talbot smiled at the red-cheeked boy, whose 
black hair and blue eyes gave proof of his Irish 
blood. " You're loyal to the chief of the clan, aren't 
you, Michael ? Well, if I were warden of the Scot- 
tish marches I wouldn't ask for better followers than 
such as you." 

Michael flushed. " My father has taught me 
always to do your bidding, Mr. George. It seems 
to me the right thing to do." 

" I hope it always will. There's some who don't 
think as well of me as your father does." Talbot 
slapped his riding-whip against his boot. " But we 
don't care what they think, do we ? A fig for all 
critics, I say ! Each man to his own salvation ! " 



io6 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

He went up the steps to his house, while Michael 
watched him with frank admiration. 

George Talbot, Irish by birth, was a prominent 
man in the province that belonged to Lord Balti- 
more. He was a kinsman of Sir William Talbot, 
who was Chief Secretary of Maryland. George had 
obtained a large grant of land on the Susquehanna 
River, when Lord Baltimore was anxious to have 
the northern part of his province settled. Three 
years after he staked out his plantation on the Sus- 
quehanna he was made surveyor-general of the 
province. That was in 1683. The next year Lord 
Baltimore went to England, leaving his son, a boy, 
as nominal governor. A commission of leading 
men was chosen to take charge of the actual work 
of the governorship, and George Talbot was at the 
head of the commission. In much of that sparsely- 
settled country he ruled like the chieftain of a Scot- 
tish clan. He built a fort near the head of Chesa- 
peake Bay ; garrisoned it with Irish followers, and 
sometimes set out from it with his troop to check 
Indian raids ; sometimes rode into the land that was 
in dispute between Lord Baltimore and William 
Penn, and lectured or bullied or drove away some 
of Penn's settlers. He ruled with a high hand, both 
at his fort and on his plantation, with the usual 
result that he was tremendously admired by his re- 
tainers, among whom was Fergus Rowan, the father 
of Talbot's young squire Michael. 

Next day the adventurous Talbot and the faithful 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 107 

Michael set out south. They rode through a coun- 
try almost as untouched by men as it was before the 
first white explorers landed on its coast. Then there 
had been Indians to hunt game in its woods and 
marshes ; to fish its streams and bay, to plant their 
crops in its open arable fields. But the Indians were 
like the birds and beasts, essentially migratory ; 
they built few permanent homes, they wasted little 
labor on bridges or mills, clearings or farm-stock- 
ades. When the hunting or the crops grew poor in 
one place they packed their tents on their ponies or 
in their canoes and set out for a new, untouched 
country. The white men were very different ; they 
wanted to own, to fence off, to build, to make travel 
and commerce easier. But in 1684 there were so 
few of them that one might ride all day and see no 
sign of a human habitation. Talbot and Michael 
had to hunt the streams for fording-places, had to 
push through underbrush that threatened to hide 
the trails, and to rely on the provisions they carried 
in their saddle-bags to furnish them food and 
drink. 

Every now and then the riders caught sight of the 
blue waters of Chesapeake Bay to the east. When- 
ever they reached a farmhouse in the wilderness 
they stopped and chatted with the settlers, giving 
them any news from the north. They spent one 
night at a hunter's log cabin ; another at a miller's 
house built on the bank of a river. Many times 
they had to go far out of the route as the crow flies 



io8 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

in order to cross wide estuaries and streams. But 
they were in no particular haste, and rested their 
horses often. It took them the better part of a 
week to reach the Patuxent River and cross into St. 
Mary's County. 

Many small fishing-hamlets were to be found along 
this southern shore of Chesapeake Bay, and Talbot 
stopped at each one, announced who he was, and 
questioned the fishermen for news. The chief com- 
plaint of the settlers was against the tyrannical man- 
ners and methods of the revenue-collectors, or ex- 
cisemen, who levied taxes for the king of England 
on all goods coming into the province or going out 
of it. Men who collect such taxes have almost al- 
ways been unpopular ; in Maryland they were pretty 
generally hated. To judge from what Talbot was 
told by the fishermen some of the collectors had 
acted as if they were Lord Baltimore himself. They 
took horses, servants, boats, as they pleased, and 
dared the owners to complain of them to the king. 
The most unpopular of the race of collectors ap- 
peared to be Christopher Rousby, who lived at the 
town of St. Mary's, and made trips up and down St. 
Mary's River and along the shores of the bay to 
collect taxes from unwilling settlers and threaten 
them with dire punishments if they dared refuse 
obedience to his orders. 

'* The knave ought to be whipped I " Talbot de- 
clared to Michael, as they left one of the hamlets. 
" I know him, an arrogant, conceited fool I It's for- 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 109 

tunate I'm not one of these folk here, or I might 
run him through some dark night." 

Down to St. Mary's they rode, where Talbot took 
lodgings for himself and Michael. The lodgings 
were at a tavern known as " The Bell and Anchor," 
where a great anchor lay on the lawn before the 
tavern door and a bell hung over the porch, used 
by the wife of the tavern-keeper to inform her guests 
when their meals were ready for them. The inn 
faced St. Mary's River, which was wide here, and 
the beach in front of it was a gathering-place for 
sailors and fishermen and longshoremen, whose 
boats were pulled up on the sand or anchored in the 
small harbor to the south of the town. Talbot and 
Michael went among the men, the chieftain hobnob- 
bing with the simple folk, as he was fond of doing, 
though he never allowed them to forget his dig- 
nity. 

There were ships lying in St. Mary's River, one of 
them a ketch belonging to His Majesty's navy. 
Men on the beach told Talbot and Michael that the 
captain of the ketch was very friendly with Christo- 
pher Rousby, the tax-collector, and the other excise- 
men. They also told Talbot that neither the cap- 
tain of the ketch nor Rousby nor his mates paid any 
attention to Lord Baltimore's officers in St. Mary's. 
The former treated the latter as if they were stable- 
boys, made to be ordered about, the longshoremen 
told Talbot. 

At first Talbot only listened and swore under his 



no HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

breath. Then he began to swear openly, and to 
look angry and shake his fist at the royal ship out 
in the bay. " These dogs of sea-captains and tax- 
collectors think they own the whole province ! " he 
muttered to Michael. " I'd like nothing better than 
to teach them a lesson I " 

The man and boy happened to be standing near 
the door of " The Bell and Anchor " when a long- 
boat landed passengers from the ketch, and the cap- 
tain and Christopher Rousby and two other men 
came up to the tavern door. All four men glanced 
at Talbot, whose bearing and dress made him a con- 
spicuous figure. He gave them a curt nod. The 
captain and one of the other men acknowledged his 
greeting, but Rousby strode past him with a shrug 
of the shoulders and a sneer on his lips. 

George Talbot was not used to such treatment ; 
when he gave a man a nod he expected at least a 
bow in return. Hot blood flushed his cheeks, and 
his fingers gripped the hilt of the hunting-knife he 
wore at his belt. Michael could not hear what he 
murmured, but he could guess at what he meant. 
Michael grew angry too ; he expected people to 
treat his master with as much deference as they 
would show the king. 

The four men went into the tavern, and soon 
Michael caught the sound of a drinking song. To 
get away from the noise Talbot and his page walked 
up the street. Presently they met the chief magis- 
trate of St. Mary's, who recognized George Talbot, 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND in 

and greeted him, as was proper, by taking off his 
hat and making a low bow. 

" Things go badly here, Mr. Talbot," said the mag- 
istrate, with a shake of his head. ** The captain of 
that ship yonder and the collectors laugh at Lord 
Baltimore. They do what they will with me and 
my men. They sit in the tavern all night, carous- 
ing, and then they take any boats they see or any- 
thing they like, and threaten the owners with their 
pistols and His Majesty's vengeance if they dare 
object. I've gone to see them about it. They snap 
their fingers at me and the governor." 

" I've seen the brutes," said Talbot. " I think I'd 
best take it on myself to explain the matter to them." 

" Be careful," warned the other. " They think 
themselves above all the law of the province." 

" By Heaven, they're not above me ! " ejaculated 
Talbot. " I'll tell Rousby so to his face, and let him 
take the consequences ! " 

Talbot and Michael went back to " The Bell and 
Anchor." The singing was still going on. The 
man and boy went into the tap-room, and ordered 
two cups of ale. They sat at a small table in a 
corner, some distance from where the four men were 
drinking, laughing, and singing. This was no time 
for Talbot to speak to them ; their wits were too be- 
fuddled to pay any heed to what he might have to 
say. 

Presently the man and boy went up to their 
rooms. The noise of the revelers reached their 



112 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

ears. Talbot was very angry. He told Michael 
that he should have a settlement with Christopher 
Rousby the next day. So loud was the noise down- 
stairs that Michael had to pull the bedclothes up 
about his head in order to get to sleep. 

The next day was cold and dark — early winter. 
Talbot spent the morning going from house to 
house, questioning each owner as to unjust taxes 
that Rousby had collected, or any other injury the 
collector had done. He made a note of each com- 
plaint, and by noon he had a long list. 

The two dined at the tavern, and afterward Tal- 
bot engaged a fisherman to row them out to the 
royal ketch in the river. Rain was falling now, and 
a wind had sprung up. Whitecaps dotted the 
water. The fisherman rowed them to the ship, and 
Talbot and Michael climbed up the rope-ladder that 
hung down over the side. A sailor stepped up to 
them. " What do you want ? " he asked. 

" I want to see the captain and Christopher 
Rousby," said Talbot. "I'm told that Rousby 
came out to the ship this morning." 

" Aye, Mr. Rousby's still here," said the sailor. 

" I am George Talbot," announced the other man, 
and, as if that were sufficient warrant for him to do 
as he chose, he walked across the deck and went 
down the companionway to the cabin. Michael 
kept close behind him. 

A bottle and glasses stood on the cabin table. 
The captain, Christopher Rousby, and an officer of 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 113 

the ship sprawled in chairs. Rousby's face was red 
and bloated. At sight of George Talbot he smiled, 
but made no motion to get up from his chair. 

Talbot didn't take off his hat or cloak, though 
both were wet with rain and spray. He stepped to 
the table and leaned on it with one hand, while he 
pointed his other gloved hand at the insolent-look- 
ing tax-collector. "You know who I am," said 
Talbot, in his deep, positive voice, "and I know 
who you are. I am chief of the deputy governors 
Lord Baltimore has appointed to care for his prov- 
ince during his absence ; and you are a tax-col- 
lector." 

" A representative of His Majesty the King of 
England," said the captain of the ship, as if to make 
out that his friend Rousby was a more important 
man. 

" Let the fellow talk," said Rousby to the captain. 
" I've heard he was clever at making speeches." 

His tone and manner were the height of insult. 
Talbot's face flushed, and Michael saw that his 
hand on the table doubled itself into a fist. 

" Yes, I will talk," said Talbot, in a voice that 
could have been heard on deck. " And you will 
listen to me, whether you want to or no ! I have a 
list of unjust taxes you've levied here in St. Mary's. 
The Devil only knows how many you've levied else- 
where." He put his hand into his pocket and pulled 
out the list he had made. 

" I'll not listen to such speech on my own ship," 



114 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

said the captain, his hands on the arms of his chair 
as if he was about to stand up. 

"Indeed you will!" roared Talbot. " This list is 
a list of crimes committed by your friend Christo- 
pher Rousby, representative of His Majesty the 
King of England in the province of Maryland." He 
opened the list and began to read the items, giving 
the names of the men in St. Mary's who had been 
unjustly taxed and the amount they had been forced 
to pay to the greedy collector. 

The three men at the table grew restless ; Rousby 
picked up his glass and drained it, the captain 
drummed on the arm of his chair with his fingers, 
the third man stared at the cabin-ceiling. 

Talbot went on with his reading until he had fin- 
ished the first page and turned to the second. Then 
Rousby broke in. " You can read all night/' said 
he, " but I tell you now that all those taxes stand, 
and I'll collect more in future as pleases me." 

"Even if you know they're illegal and unjust?" 
asked Talbot. 

" Look you here," said Rousby, leaning forward. 
" The fact that I collect them makes them both legal 
and just. I am the law hereabouts, and I do as I 
please. If you don't like it, ride back to your own 
plantation, and leave matters here to your betters." 
His small bloodshot eyes sneered at Talbot. 

Now Talbot's Irish blood was very quick and fiery. 
That word "betters" stung him, the look on 
Rousby's face infuriated him. " I don't admit any 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 115 

betters," said he. " In fact I only see inferiors be- 
fore me." His voice was cold as steel, and as biting. 
Michael had never heard him speak like that before. 

Rousby and the captain started to their feet. 

" Keep out of this, you 1 " Talbot roared at the 
captain, and leaning across the table gave him such 
a push that he set him down in his chair. Then 
Talbot's gloved hand struck Rousby on the cheek. 
"Take that ! " he cried. " If you want to settle the 
matter now, I'm ready I " 

Rousby bellowed with rage. He gave the table a 
shove that sent it flying, and his fist shot out at 
Talbot. Talbot caught it and whirled the man 
around. Then Rousby grabbed the dagger he wore 
at his side and rushed at Talbot with it. Talbot 
stepped to one side, and the same instant drew his 
own knife. Rousby swung round at him again, 
dagger uplifted ; but Talbot was the quicker. He 
struck with his knife, in the breast, pressed Rousby 
back and back until he leaned on the table. 

It had all happened in the twinkling of an eye. 
Now the captain and the third man sprang forward. 
Each caught one of Talbot's arms and held it. 
They were too late to save the collector, however. 
Talbot had stabbed him in the heart, and Christopher 
Rousby was dead. 

The captain seized a pistol from a rack and leveled 
it at Talbot. " Drop your knife I " he ordered, " and 
surrender to His Majesty's officers ! This is bad 
business for you ! Murder of a royal agent I " 



ii6 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Talbot dropped the knife. " At your orders," he 
said. " I yield as your prisoner." 

The other man caught up a rope and soon had 
the prisoner's hands bound behind him. 

" Take him up on deck," said the captain. " And 
send two of the sailors down here to me." 

The other officer marched Talbot up the com- 
panionway. Michael followed. On deck the officer 
stepped away from his prisoner long enough to 
speak to one of the sailors. While he was doing 
this Talbot whispered to Michael. " Get ashore," 
he whispered, " and tell the magistrate at St. Mary's 
what has happened. Then get word if you can to 
Sir William Talbot and to my wife." 

It was dark on deck, a murky evening. Michael 
slipped over to the side of the ship, found the rope- 
ladder, and crawled down it to where the fisherman 
was still waiting in his boat. He didn't like to leave 
his master in the hands of his enemies, but he knew 
that Talbot wanted to be obeyed. 

" Mr. Talbot is going to stay on board," Michael 
said to the boatman. '* You're to row me to shore." 

A little later he landed at St. Mary's. He was 
soaking wet and very cold, but he gave no thought 
to that. 

II 
Michael Rowan asked the boatman where the 
chief magistrate of St. Mary's lived, and, on being 
directed, went straight to the latter's house. To this 




"I Yield as Your Prisoner" 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 117 

man he told what had happened in the cabin of the 
ketch, how Rousby and Talbot had had a quarrel, 
how high words had passed between them, how 
Talbot had stabbed the tax-collector, and was now 
the captain's prisoner. The magistrate was very 
much alarmed. 

" There's no knowing what they'll do to him ! " he 
exclaimed with excitement. " Rousby treated us ill, 
there's no doubting that. But he was His Majesty's 
exciseman, and the killing of such, even in a right- 
eous quarrel, is a mighty bad business 1 What's the 
captain going to do with Mr. Talbot?" 

" I know no more about it than you," said Michael. 
" My master bade me give you the true account of 
what happened, and then told me to ride north to 
tell Mistress Talbot and help her rouse his friends to 
do what they could for him. You see he's kinsman 
to Sir William Talbot, and Sir William is nephew to 
Lord Baltimore." 

The magistrate shook his head. " That might be 
of some avail if this affair concerned the province of 
Maryland alone," said he. " But Rousby was one 
of His Majesty's officers, — there's the difficulty." 

" I must get my horse and start at once," declared 
Michael. 

The magistrate went to "The Bell and Anchor" 
with Michael, helped him put bread and cheese in 
his saddle-bags, saw him mount his horse, and waved 
his hand as Michael set out up the village street. 
When the magistrate went to the water-front he 



ii8 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

learned that the ketch had weighed anchor and 
sailed to the south. 

The night was cold and wet, and the road was 
dark and hard to follow ; but Michael put his horse 
to the gallop and rode recklessly. His one thought 
was to reach Talbot's plantation on the Susquehanna 
as quickly as he could. 

He rode until it grew so dark that he could not 
see to avoid overhanging boughs and holes in the 
road. Then he stopped at the next farmer's cabin, 
asked for a night's lodging, and was given a place 
to sleep before the hearth. At dawn he was off 
again, following the rude trail through the wilder- 
ness, making his meals from the food in his saddle- 
bags, and only stopping when he felt he must rest 
his horse. 

That night he spent in a hunter's lodge, the next 
at a log house on the edge of a small village. He 
told the people who asked his business that he was 
on an errand for George Talbot, but he gave them 
no inkling of what the errand was. 

He remembered the fords they had found on their 
journey south, and sought them again without much 
loss of time. Presently he came into country that 
he knew well, the upper shores of Chesapeake Bay 
where he had often ridden and hunted. Then he 
saw the familiar landmarks of Talbot's plantation, 
and was riding up the road to the door of the manor- 
house. He had pushed his horse to the utmost ; he 
himself was tired and aching in every sinew and 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 119 

muscle. Late in the afternoon he threw himself 
from his mount and ran up the steps. He opened 
the main door and walked into the living-room, a 
muddy, bedraggled figure. 

Mrs. Talbot was sitting at a spinet, a luxury 
brought out to Maryland from England. She 
stopped her playing and looked up as Michael 
entered. She saw he had important news. " What 
is it, Michael ? " she asked. 

He told her what had happened. She listened 
without interrupting him. Then she stood up. 
"Send your father and Edward Nigel to me at 
once," she said. 

Michael went to his father's house, only a short 
distance from the big house, and then to the cabin 
of Edward Nigel. He gave each of them the mes- 
sage of Mrs. Talbot. Then he stabled the horse 
that had carried him so well all the way from St. 
Mary's. By that time the boy was too tired and 
sleepy even to taste the food that his mother had set 
out for him. He fell into his bed and was sound 
asleep. 

Mrs. Talbot had great strength of character. She 
told her husband's two faithful Irish retainers that 
their master was now a prisoner, charged with the 
murder of a royal tax-collector. She said that they 
must set to work at once to see what could be done 
to aid him. She wrote out messages, one for Rowan 
to take immediately to influential friends in Balti- 
more City, the other for Nigel to carry to Annap- 



I20 HISTORIC EVENTS OE COLONIAL DAYS 

olis. Then, when the two had set out, she and her 
maid prepared to journey to Baltimore City next 
day. 

In a very short time the news had spread through 
the province. Men of influence, the members of the 
provincial council, met and took action in behalf of 
George Talbot. They had all disliked Rousby and 
the other royal excisemen, and almost all of them 
were close friends of the prisoner. The council sent 
messengers south to find out what the captain of the 
ketch had done with Talbot. The messengers re- 
turned with word that Talbot had been put in irons, 
that the captain had landed him in Virginia, and 
delivered him over to the governor, Lord Howard 
of Effingham, who had put him in prison at a small 
town on the Rappahannock River. 

Lord Howard of Effingham had the name of being 
a greedy and tyrannical governor. The council of 
Maryland sent a request to him that Talbot should 
be tried by a court in Maryland. Lord Howard 
treated the request with contempt, saying that he 
meant to try Talbot himself, since the latter had 
killed one of His Majesty's officers, and he repre- 
sented His Majesty in that part of the country. 
Talbot's friends knew what that meant. If Lord 
Howard sat in judgment on him Talbot's fate was 
sealed. There was a chance that a huge bribe 
might influence the governor of Virginia, but the 
chance was slim. So the council sent a messen- 
ger to Lord Baltimore in England, urging him to 



AN OUTLAW CHI?:F OF MARYLAND 121 

rescue his nephew's kinsman from Lord Howard's 
clutches. 

Mrs. Talbot had done all she could through the 
council and other men of influence to help her hus- 
band, and their efforts seemed likely to bear very 
small results. Meantime Lord Howard of Effing- 
ham might decide to try George Talbot at any time. 
So the devoted wife determined to see what she 
could do herself. She had several long talks with 
Edward Nigel and Fergus and Michael Rowan, and 
they worked out a scheme for themselves. 

On a cold day in the middle of winter a little 
skiff set sail from the landing-place at Talbot's plan- 
tation and headed for Chesapeake Bay. In the 
skiff were Mrs. Talbot, her two friends and retainers, 
Nigel and Rowan, and the faithful Michael. Fergus 
Rowan was a skilful sailor ; he knew the river and 
the bay from long experience. He took the tiller, 
and the others, muffled up for protection from the 
high wind, watched water and shore as their little 
boat bobbed up and down on the waves. 

The wind was favoring, and they made much 
better time than they would have done by riding 
through the wilderness. They spent the night at a 
small fishing-village, and were off again in the skiff 
next day. They sailed past Annapolis, on the River 
Severn, and went scudding down the bay to where 
the broad waters of the I-'otomac ffowed into it. 
Rowan kept fairly close to the shore on their right, 
and presently changed his course to the west. Now 



122 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

they had come to the Rappahannock, and were sail- 
ing up it, keeping a close watch for a good place to 
land. 

By night they had run into a little creek and made 
the skiff fast. A farmer's house was not far away, 
and the four headed for it. Fergus knocked on the 
door, and when a woman opened it he explained 
that they had expected to sail to a plantation farther 
up the Rappahannock, but that the darkness made 
navigation dangerous for one who was unfamiliar 
with the river. " There's a lady and three of us 
men," he said, " would be thankful for a night's 
lodging." Mrs. Talbot pushed back her fur hood, 
and the farmer's wife, looking at her, saw that she 
appeared to be of the quality, as the saying was, 
and invited them to step in. 

The cabin was small ; Fergus and Nigel and 
Michael shared the attic with the farmer, Jonas 
Dunham, while Mrs. Talbot was taken into Mrs. 
Dunham's room. They ate their supper on a table 
close to the kitchen hearth for warmth. Afterward 
Fergus inquired about the plantations farther up the 
river. Presently he chanced to say that he under- 
stood that the governor was holding Mr. Talbot of 
Maryland a prisoner somewhere in the neighbor- 
hood. That remark, innocently made, started 
Farmer Dunham's tongue to wagging. He said 
that the prison was about two miles distant, on the 
southern side of the river, and that it was true that 
Talbot was kept there. He made it pretty clear 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 123 

from what he said that the governor was not very 
popular along the Rappahannock, and that in his 
opinion Talbot had done a good job in killing one 
of the royal tax-collectors. 

Mrs. Talbot and Fergus and Nigel each carried a 
bag of gold pieces, all that they had been able to 
gather in Maryland ; and next morning they paid 
the farmer well for their food and lodging. They 
sailed up the river, close to the southern shore, in 
mist and rain, keeping a sharp lookout for the build- 
ing that Dunham had described. 

There was a small settlement on the shore, then 
woods, then a log building, square like a frontier 
fort, which they took for their goal. Fergus brought 
the skifi up to the bank, dropped the sail, and helped 
Mrs. Talbot to land. The mist had grown so thick 
that it hid objects a score of yards away. 

Mrs. Talbot and Nigel stayed in the shelter of the 
woods while Fergus and Michael went up to the log 
house. They rapped on the door. A man with a 
grizzled beard opened it. Fergus asked him a few 
questions about the neighborhood, explaining that 
they were very wet and cold, and would like to find 
a tavern or some place where they could get a bot- 
tle of ale or brandy. The jailer said that one of his 
neighbors had spirits for sale, and suggested that he 
should show them the place. Fergus accepted the 
ofifer, and they went about half a mile down the road 
to the neighbor's, where Fergus showed a gold piece 
and was provided with a bottle of brandy. 



124 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Fergus saw that the jailer's glass was kept well 
filled. They became great friends across the table, 
and presently the jailer was telling his new acquaint- 
ances everything he knew. He had only one pris- 
oner at present, a very fine gentleman from Mary- 
land, Mr. George Talbot, and he felt very sorry for 
his prisoner because the latter' s only crime was of 
falling foul of a tax-collector. Fergus suggested 
that the jailer hardly needed many assistants to keep 
guard over one man. The jailer answered that he 
only had two assistants, a young fellow only just 
lately arrived from England, and a lout of a boy. 

When Fergus had learned all he wanted he paid 
for the bottle of brandy, tucked the bottle under his 
arm, and with Michael, walked back to the log 
house with the bearded man. There he thanked the 
latter for his kindness, and presented him with the 
bottle, which was still half filled. It seemed very 
probable that the jailer would use up the rest of the 
brandy on such a damp day. 

The two went back to the woods and made their 
report. In the skiff there were provisions, and Mrs. 
Talbot and her friends had dinner there, and tried to 
keep as much out of the wet as they could. Then 
they waited for dusk, and the two men and the boy 
looked to the priming of their pistols. 

The men, muffled in greatcoats, the woman, in 
fur cloak and hood, went up to the log house in the 
winter twilight. Nigel beat on the door with his 
fist, and after a considerable wait the door was 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 125 

opened by a young fellow, who looked as if he had 
only just been waked from a sound nap. 

Mrs. Talbot, slipping her hood back from her 
head, smiled at the rather dull-looking fellow. 
" Can you shelter me from the storm?" she asked, 
in most appealing tones. " I'm wet and cold, and 
I'm afraid we've lost our way." 

The boy didn't often see such a fine-looking 
woman, evidently no farmer's wife, but one of the 
gentry. "I'll go ask Master Hugh," he said. 
" Step in from the wet. This is no tavern, but a 
prison, my lady. Howsomever, I'll go ask Master 
Hugh." 

The fellow hurried away, and Mrs. Talbot and her 
three companions stepped in. In a minute the serv- 
ing-lad was back. " Master Hugh'll see you in his 
room," he announced, jerking his head in the direc- 
tion of that apartment. 

He stood aside, while the lady, Nigel and Michael 
went to the jailer's room. Fergus, hanging back a 
minute, slipped a gold piece into the fellow's hand, 
whispering, *' A lady of quality. Be sure you speak 
her fairly." The youth squinted at the piece of 
money, a coin of greater value than any he had 
seen. 

Master Hugh was drinking the last of the brandy 
as the party entered his room. The candle-light 
showed that he was far more disposed to be merry 
than suspicious. " A lady I " he exclaimed, getting 
to his feet and bowing. " 'Tis a shame things are 



126 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

so rude here ! Be seated, my lady." Then, recog- 
nizing Fergus and Michael, he smiled broadly. 
" Weil met, my friends. Sit ye down. 'Tis a raw 
night. We must make ourselves comfortable." He 
glanced at the brandy bottle. " If I'd known com- 
pany was coming, I'd have been more ready to give 
welcome," he added. 

Mrs. Talbot loosened her cloak and smiled at the 
jailer as if she was delighted at his hospitality. " It's 
very agreeable here, I do assure you, Master Hugh," 
she said. "Good company is better than wine or 
food." 

" So I think," said the jailer, flattered at the lady's 
graciousness. 

" If my son and I might go out to the kitchen to 
dry our feet " suggested Fergus. 

" George, show them to the kitchen fire," the 
jailer ordered the boy, who stood staring in the 
doorway. 

Mrs. Talbot drew her chair a little closer to Mas- 
ter Hugh. " My skiff met with a mishap as I was 
on my way to visit friends up the river," she said. 
And then she used all her arts to fascinate the jailer. 

Fergus and Michael followed George to the 
kitchen. A man was scouring an iron pot on the 
hearth and looked up in some surprise. "They 
wants to dry their feet," George explained. 

Fergus and his son pulled off their boots, showing 
their wet stockings. " Could Master Hugh spare 
you long enough to run down to the village and 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 127 

fetch us a bottle of brandy ? " Fergus asked, and he 
held another shining gold piece so that George 
could catch its glitter. 

George thought he had never seen such attract- 
ive strangers. " I think he might," he said, and 
left the room in haste, intent on winning the second 
coin. 

The man at the hearth, seeing the gold piece, 
made room for the two strangers to stand near the fire. 
He also grew talkative, as Fergus, in a very friendly 
fashion, asked him various questions. He said 
there were only four men in the house at present, 
Master Hugh, the boy George, himself, and a prisoner, 
who lodged in a small room off the kitchen. He in- 
dicated the door to the prisoner's room. 

" We have a lady with us," Fergus said after a 
time. " She's cold with being so long out in the rain. 
If you could build up the fire I might ask her in 
here to warm herself. She'll pay you well for your 
trouble." He held out a gold piece to the man, who 
took it readily enough, slipped it into his pocket, 
and straightway commenced to put new logs on the 
fire. 

As the man placed the last log and turned to stand 
up again he found himself confronting a pistol- 
barrel. " Not a word ! " murmured Fergus. " Keep 
your hands at your side ! " He nodded to Mi- 
chael, who had pulled a cord from under his jacket. 
" Bind him fast," he ordered. " Now we've no wish 
to do you harm," he added to his prisoner. " Only 



128 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

a rope round your hands and a cloth over your 
mouth. We'll put a couple more gold pieces in 
your pocket too, so that if you lose this place you'll 
have enough to find you another." 

The pistol kept the man quiet until he was bound 
and gagged. Then Fergus slipped two coins into 
his pocket. That done, he ran to the door and drew 
back the bolt. But he found the door was not only 
bolted, but locked as well. He had no time to hunt 
for the key, so he threw himself against the door, 
and at the third try found the lock gave way. On a 
stool inside sat George Talbot. To his amazed mas- 
ter Fergus explained quickly what they must do. 

Fergus and Michael and Talbot, all in their stock- 
ing-feet, their boots in their hands, stole down the 
hall. The lady who was entertaining Master Hugh 
had asked Nigel to close the door behind her so as 
to shut out the draught. The three men crept down 
the hall, past the jailer's door, and slipped out of the 
house. There they drew their boots on. Then 
Michael hurried his master down to the edge of the 
woods and the waiting skiff. 

Fergus went back to the jailer's room. " I've sent 
my boy to the village to engage you a room for the 
night, my lady," said he. " If you are warm and 
rested, we might make our start." 

" Certainly," agreed the lady. She smiled at 
Master Hugh. "You've been most kind to me," 
she said. " I shall tell all my friends how courteous 
a gentleman you are." 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 129 

The jailer beamed his pleasure. " 'Tis a thousand 
shames such a gentle lady should have to walk to 
the village," said he. " I own I could give you only 
poor quarters here. But I could saddle you a 
horse." He rose. " Where's that rascal George?" 

" No, no," said Mrs. Talbot. " I'm afraid we've 
put you out more than we should already." She 
opened a bag at her belt and laid a piece of money 
on the table. " For your hospitality, Master Hugh," 
she said, with a gracious smile. 

The jailer made his best bow. "A pleasure, 
madam, a pleasure," he assured her. " I ask no pay 
for that." But he let the coin lie on the table instead 
of returning it. 

Mrs. Talbot and Nigel and Fergus went to the 
door. Master Hugh after them. There the jailer 
made more bows and spoke more pleasant words as 
the lady fastened her cloak and pulled her hood 
over her hair. " You can find the road ? " he asked 
Fergus. 

" Yes, I know the road," said Fergus. 

As they left the log house they saw some one com- 
ing toward them. It was George with the precious 
bottle. "Take it to Master Hugh with my compli- 
ments," said Fergus. Then as they moved away he 
murmured, "That ought to keep our friend from 
finding out what's happened for some time." 

They sped to the woods and the skiflF. Talbot 
and Michael were waiting in the boat with the sail 
raised. " Oh, my dear wife ! " exclaimed Talbot, 



130 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

as he clasped the devoted woman in his arms. 
" 'Twas almost worth being in such peril to find you 
here again ! " 

The skiff stole down the Rappahannock in the 
rain and darkness, carrying the outlaw Talbot back 
to his plantation. 

Ill 

The skiff retraced its course up Chesapeake Bay. 
The only landings it made were for food and water, 
and at such times George Talbot kept closely hid- 
den, while Fergus or Michael or Edward Nigel did the 
parleying. For Talbot was known by sight to almost 
every one who lived on the shore of the great bay, 
and they all knew as well that he had been a pris- 
oner of the governor of Virginia. News could travel 
surprisingly fast through the wilderness, and the 
hunters and farmers, though having the best of in- 
tentions toward him, might hinder his escape from 
Lord Howard of Efifingham. 

The skiff brought them safely to the Susquehanna, 
and Talbot, his wife, and his three friends landed 
and went up to his manor-house. There was great 
rejoicing among all his retainers, and the story of 
his rescue from the Virginia prison was told again 
and again, and each time it was told it gained in 
thrills. But Fergus Rowan told every man, woman, 
and child on the plantation that no whisper of the 
chief's whereabouts must get beyond the limits of 
his farms. The chief was safely out of Virginia, but 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 131 

Lord Howard had great influence in Maryland, and 
might try to capture George Talbot again. 

A fortnight later Michael, who had been sent to 
Baltimore City on business, brought back word that 
the governor of Virginia had raised a great hue and 
cry when he found his prisoner escaped, had sent 
his agents into Maryland to find out where Talbot 
had gone, and had compelled Lord Baltimore's own 
agents to help him in the search. 

"The first place where they would look is here," 
Mrs. Talbot said to her husband. " We must find 
some hiding-place for you." 

"Can you think of one, Michael?" asked Talbot. 
" Boys are apt to know the most concerning places 
to hide." 

Michael thought of all the places near the planta- 
tion. *' There's a cave in the river bank up in the 
woods," he said presently. " I don't think any one 
could find you there." 

So Talbot and his wife and Michael looked for 
the hiding-place. The cave was large, and was sur- 
rounded by thickets, and screened by bushes from 
any one on the river. It seemed just the place that 
was wanted. Fergus and Nigel were told about it, 
but no one else ; and plans were made to send pro- 
visions by a roundabout path. 

There were wild fowl in the marshes of the river, 
and Talbot could hunt them almost from the door 
of his cave. He caught two hawks and trained 
them to catch wild fowl and so help to stock his 



132 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

larder. While Nigel and Fergus kept watch at the 
plantation, always on the lookout for any suspi- 
cious-appearing stranger, Michael, fowling-piece in 
his hand, would make his way along the Susque- 
hanna, and, joining his master, spend hours with 
him training the pair of hawks. 

The outlaw, — for that was what Talbot was now, 
with a price set on his head, — had only been in 
hiding for a few days when officers, both of Lord 
Baltimore and of the governor of Virginia, came to 
the plantation. Mrs. Talbot was at the manor- 
house with Fergus. To the officers* questions as to 
where her husband had fied, she answered with a 
question : " Would he come back here, where he 
would expect his enemies to be certain to search for 
him?" 

It was clear that neither she nor Fergus would 
tell the men anything they might know about Tal- 
bot. She told them to search the house and the 
plantation. The officers made their search, while 
Michael, hunting fowls along the river, kept watch, 
ready to warn his master to draw back into his cave, 
in case the searchers should hunt along the bank. 

The men didn't go anywhere near the cave, and 
left the plantation without any inkling of where Tal- 
bot had gone. But for several days his wife and 
friends were careful not to go near his hiding-place, 
lest spies might be watching them. 

Lord Howard of Effingham had had all ships 
sailing from Virginia and Maryland searched for 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 133 

the fugitive. He had spread a net pretty well over 
both provinces, for he was determined to catch 
George Talbot if he possibly could. Another man 
might have given up the chase when he found no 
clue, but not so the determined governor of Vir- 
ginia. As a result his agents came to the planta- 
tion time and again, and Talbot had to stay in his 
hiding-place while winter changed to spring, and 
spring to summer, and the next autumn came. 
Michael was his companion much of the time, but 
idleness was hard for a man of Talbot's nature. 

The people on the plantation were faithful to their 
master, and gave no sign that they suspected he 
might be in hiding not very far away. But such a 
secret was hard to keep through many months, and 
at last some of Lord Baltimore's officers got wind in 
some way of the farmers' suspicions. They waited 
until they heard from London that Lord Baltimore 
had been successful in getting an order from the 
Privy Council of England directing that the gov- 
ernor of Virginia should send Talbot to London for 
trial instead of trying him in the province, and 
then they swooped down on the plantation, found 
Talbot, and forced him to surrender. 

The outlaw chief rode to Baltimore City a pris- 
oner. His wife went with him, and Michael to wait 
on her. In the town he learned from his friends 
that he was to be tried in England, not in Virginia. 
That was some comfort, and his wife told him that 
as soon as she learned that he had sailed for Europe 



134 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

she would take ship too, and meet him there. She 
had friends in London, and they might have much 
influence with the Privy Council. 

The Maryland officers handed their prisoner over 
to the agents of the Virginia governor. These took 
him to Lord Howard, who had him put in a prison 
that was more securely guarded than the one on the 
Rappahannock had been. In prison George Talbot 
cooled his heels for some time, while his wife and 
Michael waited in Baltimore City to learn of his sail- 
ing for England. 

Lord Howard of Effingham had grown so arbi- 
trary as governor of Virginia, — where he had almost 
as much power as the king had in England, — that, 
instead of obeying the order of the Privy Council 
and sending his prisoner to London, he kept him in 
prison during the winter of 1685, and then in April 
of that year actually dared to announce that he 
meant to place Talbot on trial in Virginia for the 
killing of Christopher Rousby. 

Word of this came to Mrs. Talbot and her friends 
in Maryland. Lord Howard was disobeying the 
law of England in not sending Talbot there for trial, 
but, notwithstanding that, he might, in his tyran- 
nical fashion, try Talbot, convict him, and even exe- 
cute him. His wife could do nothing to prevent 
this if she stayed in Maryland ; so, faithful and brave 
as ever, she took passage in a merchantman for 
England, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, with 
Michael as her squire. 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 135 

Michael, used to the wilderness of the colonies, 
with only a few scattered settlements to break 
the stretches of woods and meadows, opened his 
eyes very wide at the multitude of houses, the 
throngs of people, that he saw in the city by the 
Thames. He went with Mrs. Talbot to call on Lord 
Baltimore, the owner of the province of Maryland. 
Lord Baltimore listened intently to Mrs. Talbot's 
story, and grew red in the face with anger when he 
heard how the governor of Virginia was making 
light of the order of the Privy Council. 

" I will at once see the most influential members 
of the Council, Madame," said Lord Baltimore. 
" I will see my friend Tyrconnel, I will go to His 
Majesty himself, if need be, to secure Mr. Talbot his 
rights. I knew Lord Howard to be a headstrong 
knave ; I'd not suspicioned him to be a traitor also ! 
I'll bring him to time right soon I " 

" It must be soon, my lord," said Mrs. Talbot. " The 
governor may bring Mr. Talbot to trial any day." 

"I'll go at once," Lord Baltimore assured her. 
" We'll have a message sent to Virginia by the next 
ship out." 

Mrs. Talbot and Michael went back to their lodg- 
ings, and Lord Baltimore hastened to his influential 
friend Tyrconnel, who took him to the king, James II. 
Hot with indignation, Baltimore denounced the 
illegal act of the governor of Virginia. He made it 
plain that Lord Howard was actually daring to defy 
His Majesty's orders in his province. 



136 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

The king frowned. " Indeed, my Lord Baltimore, 
it does look as if our governor of Virginia were 
growing somewhat overfed with pride. Our Privy 
Council orders your man Talbot sent here for trial 
on the charge of killing a tax-collector, and instead 
Lord Howard holds him and threatens to try him 
there. I will teach my obstinate governor a lesson." 
He turned to a page and bade him fetch writing 
materials. 

The king wrote a few lines in his own hand, and 
handed the paper to Baltimore. It was a pardon in 
full for George Talbot. " Send that to Virginia as 
fast as you can," said the king. " If Howard fails 
to heed that, I shall have to appoint another gov- 
ernor in his stead." 

Lord Baltimore went directly to Mrs. Talbot's 
lodgings and showed her the king's pardon. " We 
must send it to Virginia at once," said he. 

" Let my boy Michael Rowan take it," said Mrs. 
Talbot. "There is none would do more for my 
husband." 

So Michael sailed for America with the precious 
document. His ship made a quick passage to 
Virginia ; and it was fortunate it did, for no sooner 
had he landed at Jamestown than he heard that 
Talbot had been put on trial, had been convicted of 
murder, and was waiting execution. 

Michael carried the king's pardon to Lord Howard. 
The governor read it and considered it. Apparently 
he realized that this was an order he did not dare 



AN OUTLAW CHIEF OF MARYLAND 137 

disobey. So he gave directions to his officers to set 
the prisoner free. 

Michael was the first friend George Talbot saw 
when he came out of prison, no longer an outlaw 
with a price upon his head, but a free man. " You 
were with me when I caused this trouble, Michael," 
said Talbot, gripping the boy by the hand, " and 
you're with me now when the trouble's at an end. 
God bless yoij for a faithful friend to me 1 " 

He asked news of his wife, and when he learned 
that she had gone to London and had besought 
Lord Baltimore to rescue him from the governor of 
Virginia he said, " We must go to her, Michael. 
First a trip to the plantation to get the funds and set 
matters straight there, and then over the sea to 
England ! " 

So Talbot and Michael rode north to the manor- 
house on the Susquehanna in the summer. It was 
not Hke the voyage in the skiff, when the outlaw 
had to keep constantly in hiding. Now he rode 
openly, and everywhere people who knew who he 
was flocked to shake his hand and welcome him 
back to Maryland. 

They reached the plantation and there Fergus 
Rowan and Edward Nigel and all the other retainers 
gave their chief a great welcome. But his thoughts 
were over the ocean, and he quickly gave directions 
what should be done in his absence, and went to 
Baltimore City to take ship. He wanted Michael to 
go with him, and Michael's parents consented, for 



138 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the boy was now grown to be a man, and they 
thought it well that he should see something of the 
world. 

Husband and wife met in London, and Michael 
made his home with them there, serving as Talbot's 
secretary, and learning the ways of a world vastly 
different from that of the plantation on the Susque- 
hanna. 

Talbot never returned to Maryland. He had not 
been in England long when the revolution broke 
out that placed William of Orange on the throne. 
Talbot, ever an adventurous spirit, took the side of 
James II and the Stuarts, fought as a Jacobite, and 
when the Stuart cause was lost, went to France and 
entered the service of the French king. 

Michael, however, went back, was granted land 
by Lord Baltimore, and made his own farm in the 
fertile country of northern Maryland. George Talbot 
had always been more of an adventurer than a 
planter or farmer, but Michael Rowan preferred to 
till his own fields, though he never forgot the thrill of 
excitement of the days when he had served his 
outlawed chief. 



VI 

IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 

{Massachusetts^ i6g2) 

I 

The schoolmaster closed his book with a snap. 
"That's all for to-day," he said. "Be sure you 
know your lessons well to-morrow, for I expect vis- 
itors any day now, and I want my classes to make 
a good appearance." He was a pale young man 
with pleasant blue eyes, and his shoulders stooped 
as though he were used to sitting much of the time 
bent over a table. Most boys and girls liked him, 
because of his kindness and patience with them, but 
a few, such as there are to be found in almost every 
school, made fun of him behind his back because he 
wasn't harsher with them. Sometimes they made 
fun of him too because of his strange pets, a lame 
sheep-dog, birds that had hurt their wings and 
couldn't fly far, any sort of animal that other people 
didn't care for. 

Matthew Hamlin and Joseph Glover left school to- 
gether, and walked down one of the miry streets of 
Salem. " My father talked about them last night," 
said Matthew. " He thought I didn't hear him. 
He said ' Witches ! ' and laughed." 



140 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

"And didn't he say anything more?" demanded 
Joseph. 

"Oh, yes. He said, 'Nonsense! A pack of old 
wives' tales ! Folks ought to be ashamed to hearken 
to such things.' " 

" Well," said Joseph, " I was sitting in the corner 
of the smithy shop, and two men came in, and they 
said to the smith, ' You've got a good-sized chimney 
here, and you'd best keep an eye out, or the 
witches'll be flying down it' The smith didn't 
laugh ; he frowned and shook his head, and said, 
•There's no telling. But if they do come, I'll be 
ready for them.' " 

Matthew dug his fists hard into the pockets of his 
jacket, and his round, rosy face looked unusually 
serious. " Let's go by the smithy, Joe," he sug- 
gested. " I'd like to have a look at the chim- 
ney." 

So when they came to the next lane they turned 
down it, and presently reached the wide doors of the 
blacksmith's shop, which stood hospitably open. 
The smith was working at his anvil, striking great 
sparks with his hammer as he beat a crooked horse- 
shoe. He nodded to the two boys, who threw their 
school-books on a bench, and walked over to the 
hearth, as if to warm their hands. 

" Well, lads," said the smith, after a minute, " and 
what did ye learn to-day ? " He rested his brawny 
arms on his hammer. " Folks tell me that Master 
Thomas Appleton is mighty learned and a great 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 141 

teacher ; and, faith, he looks it, though I caught him 
chuckling on the road the other night." 

" And he laughs sometimes in school too, and tells 
us stories," said Joe. " I like him. Most of us do ; 
only that John Rowley and Mercy Booth and Susan 
Parsons don't, because he caught them beating a 
dog and scolded them for it. But when they talk 
about him, the rest of us shut them up, don't we, 
Mat?" 

Mat, however, appeared to be much more inter- 
ested in examining the smithy chimney than he was 
in Master Appleton. He had bent forward and was 
trying to look up the great sooty throat. " Do you 
think it's big enough for any one to come down ? " 
he asked. " And is it clear to the top ? " 

Jacob Titus, the smith, rested his hammer on the 
anvil, and slowly wiped his hands on his leather 
apron. *' Some might come down it — or fly up it," 
he answered. " Witches." 

The word carried a thrill. Mat stood up straight 
again, facing the smith. Joe stopped warming his 
hands at the blaze. Titus nodded his head slowly. 
" Witches might," he said. " And they wouldn't 
need it clear to the top, they wouldn't." 

Joe laughed. " But there aren't such things as 
witches, Mr. Titus. They're like fairies. People 
tell stories about them to frighten children." 

" People tell stories about them right enough," 
agreed the smith, " but it ain't so sure they only do 
it to frighten children. They've found witches, and 



142 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

proved them witches, and not so very far from Sa- 
lem. A man from Boston was in here yester eve, a 
likely-looking man, too, and he stood there by the 
fire, where you be standing, and he gave me facts 
and figures. Seems he was well acquainted with 
the matter. He says they hung a woman in 
Charlestown for trying to cure sick people by mix- 
ing magic with simples and herbs, contrary to what 
the doctors allowed, and they found another witch 
at Dorchester, and yet a third at Cambridge. Seems 
as if the witches sometimes took hold of children, 
and used their magic on 'em so's they did strange 
things, things no children would do usual." 

The smith's voice had grown low and mysterious, 
and in his interest in the subject he had left his anvil 
and walked over to the boys by the hearth. He 
was gazing at them when there came a sound at the 
door and the boys saw a man's figure appear 
against the winter dusk that had setded on the lane. 
Jacob Titus wheeled about. " The very man I was 
speaking of ! " he muttered. And in a louder voice 
he added, " Good-evening, sir, good-evening." 

The stranger came into the shop. He was very 
tall, and his black clothes seemed to increase his 
height and the darkness of his face. He took of! 
his high-crowned hat and ran his fingers through his 
long, uncombed hair. Then he flung his cloak back 
over his shoulders as if he found the smithy warm. 
" Good-evening to you, friend smith," he said, " and 
to you, young men." His voice was deep and oily, 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 143 

with a fawning sound to it. " Don't let me disturb 
your talk. I'll rest a few minutes with your kind 
permission." 

Titus drew a stool near the hearth. " Sit here, sir. 
It happens I was telling these boys about you, and 
about your talk of yester eve, about the witches," he 
added. 

The stranger sat down, stood his tall hat on the 
floor, and spread out his fingers, fan-like, on his 
knees. "About the witches?" he repeated in his 
deep voice. " Hardly a pleasing subject. And yet 
one that concerns folks everywhere. Moreover, un- 
less I'm mistaken, it concerns the people of Salem 
very particularly." 

Mat and Joe could not help being impressed ; 
there was something very mysterious in the man's 
voice and manner ; he seemed to carry a strange, 
uncanny atmosphere about with him, and to give 
the impression that, if there were such creatures 
as witches, he would be precisely the person who 
would know most about them. As for the smith, it 
was very evident that he held his visitor in great awe. 

" I told you of Goody Jones, of Charlestown," 
said the stranger. " I hadn't told you of the strange 
case of the woman Glover, who was laundress for 
John Goodwin of Boston. One day Martha, John 
Goodwin's oldest daughter, who was thirteen, told 
her parents that the laundress was stealing pieces of 
linen from the family washing. They spoke to her 
about it, and the woman dared to answer them with 



144 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

many strange threats and curses. Thereupon the 
little Martha fell down in a fit, and soon the same 
thing happened to the three other children, who 
were eleven, seven, and five years old. Afterward 
they all plainly showed that the laundress had be- 
witched them ; they became deaf and dumb for 
stretches of time, they said they were being pricked 
with pins and cut with knives, they barked like dogs 
and purred like cats, they could even skim over the 
ground without touching it, or, in the words of the 
worthy Cotton Mather, seemed to ' fly like geese.' 
This lasted for several weeks." 

" Saints above 1 " murmured the smith. " To 
think of that ! " 

" Yes," went on the stranger. " Doctors and min- 
isters studied the case, and agreed that undoubtedly 
the Glover woman had bewitched the children, and 
she was hanged for trading in black magic." 

" Aye," agreed Jacob Titus, " no doubt she was a 
witch. What those children did tallies with all 
stories of bewitchments." 

Joe and Mat kept silent, but they could not help 
acknowledging to themselves that the children had 
acted very much as if the woman had bewitched 
them. Moreover, the stranger's manner made a 
great impression on his hearers ; he never smiled as 
he spoke, was evidently very much in earnest, and 
looked tremendously wise. 

His very next words served to increase this im- 
pression. " I have given much time and thought 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 145 

to this matter of witches," said he, "and it's that 
which has fetched me to your town of Salem. You 
know Salem Village, or Salem Farms, as some ap- 
pear to call it?" 

Of course they all knew Salem Village, a little 
group of farms that lay four or five miles out from 
their own town. 

"There," said the stranger, "lives one Samuel 
Parris, minister of the Gospel, and his family." As 
he spoke he made marks and lines on his leg, as if to 
indicate the people he was naming. The boys looked 
back and forth from his lean finger tracing these 
lines to his deep, glowing eyes. " Samuel Parris," 
continued the speaker, " lived in the West Indies 
for a time, and when he came here he brought two 
colored servants with him, a man called John In- 
dian, and his wife, who was known as Tituba, who 
was part Indian and part negro. These two brought 
with them from the Indies a knowledge of palm- 
reading, fortune-telling, second-sight, and various 
strange incantations, such as the natives use there. 
They soon attracted to them by these tricks a 
number of children, chiefly girls, some as old as 
twenty, one child, Mr. Parris's daughter Elizabeth, 
only nine. At first the girls simply did the tricks 
these Indian servants taught them, but before long 
they gave signs of being bewitched in earnest ; they 
crawled about on their hands and knees, they spoke 
a language no one could understand, they fell into 
trances. When these • Afflicted Children,' as they 



146 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

call them, were asked who made them do these 
things, they pointed to the Indian Tituba, and to two 
elderly women, one named Sarah Good, the other 
Sarah Osburn. People have watched these three, 
and they find that whenever Sarah Good quarrels 
with her neighbors their cattle have been apt to 
sicken and die. Naturally the three women are now 
under arrest. Such things savor strongly of the 
Evil Eye, methinks." 

" I think so too," said the smith stoutly. " That 
bewitching of the neighbors' cattle is bad business I " 

It was now dark outside, and the only light in the 
smithy was the fire on the hearth. " Folks here in 
Salem should be on watch that this witchcraft comes 
no nearer home," muttered the stranger in his deep 
voice. '* I have come here partly to warn them." 

" That's good of you," said Titus. 

The stranger picked up his hat, as if about to 
leave. 

•' Might we know your name ? " asked the smith, 
very respectfully. 

"Jonathan Leek," said the other. "One time I 
was in business with a man of Salem, Richard Swan. 
He took more than his fair share of the profits of our 
ventures, and left me poor. But I forgave him." 

" Oh, I knew Richard Swan well," said the smith. 
" He died some years ago. We all thought well of 
him here in Salem. His widow lives here now, Mis- 
tress Ann Swan." 

" Her house is near ours," spoke up Mat. 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 147 

" The schoolmaster boards with her," volunteered 
Joe. " He has a little shed at the back where he 
keeps his dogs." 

" I forgave him," repeated Jonathan Leek in his 
oily tones. He put on his high-crowned hat and 
stood up. " Let us all beware of the evil eye, my 
friends," he added, and, drawing his cloak close 
about him, strode out through the doorway. 

The smith and the two boys stared after him, and 
then looked at each other. He had certainly 
brought mysterious stories with him, and the effect 
of them seemed to remain. •* What was I telling 
you ?" said Titus. " Don't be making sport of such 
business." He went back to his work at the anvil. 

The boys said good-night, and left the smithy. 
The air was colder now that darkness had settled on 
the lane, and they buttoned their coats tight and 
stuck their hands in their pockets. " He knows a 
good deal about them, doesn't he?" said Mat. 

Joe nodded his head. "It does sound mighty 
strange," said he. 

" I wonder what father would have said if he'd 
heard Mr. Leek," observed Mat. " He couldn't 
have called all that just old wives' tales." 

At a corner the boys parted, and Mat trudged 
home alone. He glanced with new interest at the 
house where Mistress Swan and the schoolmaster 
lived. He would have liked to know what Mr. Ap- 
pleton would say about this business of witches. 
Would he laugh and say, " What nonsense 1 " or 



148 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

would he look as much impressed as Jacob Titus 
had looked ? Jacob was no fool, and it was very 
clear that this Mr. Jonathan Leek was an unusually 
wise man. 

But when Mat came into his own warm house, 
and found the sitting-room brightly lighted and the 
family there, he couldn't help doubting whether all 
he had just heard was true. He didn't mention the 
matter at all at supper, or until he had finished his 
studying for the next day. When he was through, 
however, he pulled his stool up to his father's chair, 
and told him all that he and Joe had heard that 
afternoon. All, that is, except what Mr. Leek had 
said about the business dealings he had once had 
with Richard Swan. 

" And did this make you believe in witches and 
the Evil Eye?" asked Mr. Hamlin. 

" I don't know," answered Mat, doubtfully. " Joe 
and I didn't know what to think. The stories folks 
are telling about the witches and about what they 
do to children and to animals are so strange ; and 
then so many grown-up people believe them. 
How's a boy to know whether they're true or not ? " 

"Only by using his seven wits, Mat," said Mr. 
Hamlin. " Before you believe any of these unnat- 
ural things, see them happen with your own eyes. 
And when a boy or girl cries out that a witch is 
sticking pins into them, make sure that they're not 
pretending ; you know children love to pretend 
things, and they like it all the better if they can get 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 149 

grown people to believe what they pretend. I don't 
think any witch will try sticking pins or knives in 
you or Joe, or make you fly over the ground like 
geese. The witch won't, that is, unless you help 
her." 

Mat chuckled. " Trust Joe and me for keeping 
away from creatures like that," he declared. 

Mat started whittling a whistle from a willow 
stick, and Mr. Hamlin began adding a column of 
figures in a cash-book, but after a few minutes he 
looked up at his wife, who had come into the room 
and was knitting. " I can't blame the children for 
talking of witches and magic things," he said, 
" when all the province of Massachusetts Bay seems 
to be thinking about the same matters. Every- 
body's whispering about them, and every man, 
woman, and child seems suddenly to know exactly 
what witches do. Three men told me to-day about 
those poor women they've jailed over at Salem Vil- 
lage. And the men seemed almost to believe that 
the women really had dealt in witchcraft, although 
they were all three sober men, and one was a min- 
ister of the Gospel." 

"And I've been hearing the same things," said 
his wife. " Men don't do all the gossiping, my 
dear." 

Mr. Hamlin turned again to his cash-book, but his 
counting was interrupted in a few minutes by a loud 
rapping at the street-door. Mat opened the door, 
and Mr. Samuel Glover and his son Joe came hur- 



I50 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

rying in. " There's strange news afoot," said Mr. 
Glover, " and I thought it only neighborly to share 
it with you." He threw his hat and cloak on a 
chair. " Some one has charged Mistress Ann Swan 
with dealing in witchcraft, with being a familiar of 
the Evil One." 

" Mistress Swan ! " exclaimed husband and wife, 
while Mat stood listening with his mouth wide open. 

" It's said she's bewitched the children, makes 
them act like cats and dogs, sends them into tran- 
ces, and misuses them in many difTerent ways." 

"She's a most kind-hearted woman, and loves 
children dearly," said Mistress Hamlin. "She al- 
ways gives them sweets when they come to see her." 

" Aye," agreed Mr, Glover, " so the children say, 
but they add that she gives them the sweets so she 
may have a chance to work her evil on them." 

"What children say this?" demanded Mr. Ham- 
lin. 

"Mercy Booth and Susan Parsons and John 
Rowley," answered Mr. Glover. "They're the 
main ones." 

Mat looked at Joe. " Serves 'em right," said he. 
"They're mean enough to be bewitched ! " 

" They stone dogs and cats," put in Joe. " And 
the schoolmaster caught 'em at it, and gave 'em a 
good scolding." 

"But who started the story?" asked Mr. Hamlin. 
" Did the children tell these things themselves ? " 

" A man who's lately come from Boston took the 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 151 

matter to the town clerk," answered Mr. Glover. 
" It seems the children had told their strange stories 
to him. His name is Jonathan Leek." 

. Mat gave a long whistle. " Jonathan Leek I " he 
echoed. " Why, he's the man Joe and I met at the 
smithy !" 

" Yes," said Joe, nodding vigorously. ** And he 
knows all about witchcraft." 

" I should think he did," agreed Mat. 

" Poor Ann Swan," said Mistress Hamlin. " As 
fine a woman as ever lived. And to be charged 
with being a witch ! " 

" That's what I say," assented Mr. Glover. *' And 
I'm doubtful if the matter stops there. There's talk 
already that another had some part in mistreating 
the children," 

" Who ?" demanded Mr. Hamlin. 

" Who but the man who lives in the house with 
her, Mr. Appleton the schoolmaster." 

" And what can they say against him ? " asked 
Mr. Hamlin. " He's as straightforward a man as 
ever I met." 

" He has a little shed back of the house where he 
keeps some dogs," explained the other. " The chil- 
dren say that he cures these dogs of broken bones 
by magic. They say they've seen him do it ; take a 
stray cur who limps and say a few words they can't 
understand, and soon the dog doesn't limp any 
more. And the three afflicted children say that he 
makes them suffer instead of his wounded pets." 



152 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

" They've been put up to this 1 " exclaimed Mr. 
Hamlin. " They'd never have thought of all this 
for themselves." 

" Maybe," agreed Mr. Glover. " But you know 
how such matters go. Speak a word or two against 
a man or woman, never mind how honest they may 
be, and folks seize on it, and before you know it 
they have a dozen ill stories to tell against them." 

" The schoolmaster a witch I I'll not believe 
it 1 " declared Mat. 

" Nor will I," said Joe. 

Mr. Hamlin smiled. " That's right, boys. Stand 
to your guns. Mr. Appleton has some skill at set- 
ting broken bones, probably, and that's how he 
mends these wounded animals. It's those who be- 
lieve these charges of witchcraft who are crazy, in 
my opinion ; not the folks they charge with having 
dealings with the Evil One. As for calling Mistress 
Swan a witch because of what those children said, 
any woman might accuse a neighbor of being a 
witch because her milk wouldn't churn into butter 
while that neighbor happened to be chatting with her." 

" That's about what they have said of some of 
their witches in Boston," put in Mr. Glover. " Yet, 
absurd as this may seem to us, it's likely to prove 
fairly serious to Mistress Swan and Mr. Appleton. 
People don't stop to use their wits in such affairs 
nowadays. Call man or woman a witch, and you're 
two-thirds of the way to proving him or her one." 

" But the schoolmaster ! " protested Mat. He 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 153 

looked at Joe. " In trouble because those three 
little rats don't like him ! Well, you and I'll stand 
by him, won't we, Joe ? We'll show people that he's 
no more a witch than the minister is, or than Jona- 
than Leek himself." 

" We will," assented Joe. " I didn't like that Mr. 
Leek much anyway." 

" And I'll help you," said Mr. Hamlin. Mr. 
Glover nodded his head. " Here's four of us at 
least who'll stand by the schoolmaster," said he, 
" and by Mistress Swan too," he added, " for she's 
likely to be as guiltless as Thomas Appleton." 

II 

There were a great number of people in Massa- 
chusetts in 1692 who believed in witches, and quite 
as many in Salem as in any other town. Usually 
there was some old enmity under each charge of 
witchcraft, though not always, for in some cases 
people made their charges recklessly, apparently 
enjoying the prominence it brought them, and 
thinking little of their victims. In those cases where 
there was some old score being paid ofi, however, 
the populace usually gave little attention to that 
side of it, but were only interested in the facts 
brought out to prove that the accused person was a 
dealer in the Evil Arts. As Mr. Glover said, " Call 
a person a witch, and you were two-thirds of the 
way to actually proving that he or she was a witch." 

There was school next day, as usual, and Thomas 



154 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Appleton tried to appear unconcerned about every- 
thing but his scholars' lessons. The three afflicted 
children, the two girls and the boy, were not there, 
having been kept at home by their parents ; and the 
others, who had all heard the story about the school- 
master by now, could see that he had something on 
his mind. When school was over Mat and Joe 
waited until Mr. Appleton was ready to go, and 
then joined him on his walk home. At first they 
talked about all sorts of things, but presently Mat 
said, " We wanted you to know that we're friends of 
yours, no matter what people may say about you." 

The schoolmaster smiled, and put his hand affec- 
tionately on the boy's shoulder. " You've heard 
then that people are saying that Mistress Swan is a 
witch, and that I'm another?" 

Both boys nodded. 

** It's the most absurd story in the world," the man 
went on. " Mistress Swan is kindness itself to every 
one, and especially to children. When she hears of 
any boy or girl who's ill she takes them jellies and 
puddings. I know a thousand things she's done that 
shows how much she loves them." 

" And we know how you care for dogs and cats 
and birds," put in Joe. " And every one in school, 
except those three, would follow you anywhere." 

Just then two women, coming along the lane, saw 
the schoolmaster, and deliberately crossed to the 
other side so as to avoid meeting him. Thomas 
Appleton reddened, and looked hurt. Then he 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 155 

snapped his fingers, and muttered, " I'd like to play 
on my pipe, like that Pied Piper of Hamelin Town 
we hear of, and dance away, taking all the children 
and animals after me. It would serve you right, 
you evil-minded folk of Salem I " 

Presently they came to Mistress Swan's door. 
" Might we see the shed where you keep your 
dogs ? " asked Mat. 

"Certainly," said the schoolmaster, and he led 
them to the little building back of the house. Inside 
were half-a-dozen dogs, and those who could leaped 
up about Appleton, licked his hands, and showed 
their devotion to him. " These two," said he, point- 
ing to a couple of collies, " need exercise. Would 
you boys like to go for a walk with the three of us ? " 

The boys said they would, and soon they were 
out in the open country back of Salem, master and 
boys and dogs racing along in the nipping air. 
They passed some of their school-fellows playing in 
a field, and these joined them, so that presently there 
was quite a crowd tramping with the schoolmaster 
and his dogs, and all enjoying themselves. 

The schoolmaster whistled and sang and laughed 
as if he had quite forgotten what people were 
saying about him in Salem; but when they were 
back at Mistress Swan's gate, and all but Joe and 
Mat had left, he frowned. " Poor Mistress Swan ! " 
he said. '• She can't throw off her troubles as easily 
as a man can. And I doubt if any of the neighbors 
have come in to see her." 



156 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

'* We'll come in," said Joe ; and as soon as the 
dogs were housed again they went in with Mr. 
Appleton. They found Mistress Swan, a pink- 
cheeked woman with soft gray hair, working on a 
sampler at a window. " I'm right glad to see you. 
Mat, and you too, Joe," she said. " Thomas, will 
you fetch some apples from the pantry ? " 

The schoolmaster brought the apples, and the boys 
sat near the window, eating them, and told her of 
their tramp in the country. Neither Mat nor Joe 
could see anything that made them think of a witch 
in this sweet-faced woman. 

While they were chatting a resounding thump 
came at the front door, and when Mr. Appleton 
opened it, three grim-faced men walked in. One 
was the town clerk, and the other two were con- 
stables of Salem. They marched into the room, 
with never a bow or " By your leave," or smile of 
greeting. Mistress Swan grew a trifle pale, and the 
boys stood up. " What do you want ? " demanded 
the schoolmaster in a low voice. 

"We want Mistress Swan," answered the town 
clerk, his eyes very stern and forbidding. "She 
stands accused of dealing in Black Arts and other 
evil business. She must go with us to the jail, there 
to await examination of the charges brought against 
her." 

" It's an infamy," cried the schoolmaster, " and a 
lie ! You've known Mistress Swan for years, and 
you know her to be as innocent as your own wives I " 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 157 

The town clerk glowered at Thomas Appleton. 
" Have a care," said he, his voice like steel scraping 
on iron. " Have a care lest it be your turn next. 
Master Appleton." 

" I care nothing for that," hotly retorted the 
master. " Gladly would I go with you in Mistress 
Swan's place. But to think that you charge her, the 
soul of gentleness and kindness to every one, with 
such an infamous thing ! What can you be thinking 
of? How can any man or woman or child in Salem 
bring such charges against Mistress Swan ? " 

" They have been brought, nevertheless," re- 
sponded the clerk. " There are three children claim 
to have been bewitched by her, and there is a man, 
Jonathan Leek, who tells of strange happenings." 

" Jonathan Leek ? " exclaimed Mistress Swan. 
" He ? Why, 'tis he who claimed my husband 
owed him money, and has tried to get payment 
from me. But we owed him no money. He's an 
evil, tale-bearing man ; but he knows I am not guilty 
of such wicked things as these." 

" All that you can answer to the court," said the 
clerk. " My business is only to see you taken into 
custody." 

" Is there no way by which she may stay here ? " 
asked Appleton. " I will promise that she will be here 
when you want her. Or take me as hostage for her." 

" She must come," said the clerk. " There's been 
enough talk, and to spare. Get your cloak and 
come." 



158 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Mistress Swan rose, folded the sampler and put it 
away in a closet, and got out her cloak and hood. 
She held out her hand to the schoolmaster. " You've 
stood by me like an honest man, Thomas. God 
grant they don't drag you into this ! " 

He took her offered hand and his eyes glowed as 
he looked into her face. " If they do you a wrong 
they shall suffer for it," said he. *' There are honest 
men in Salem as well as knaves." 

She smiled at the two boys, who were taking in 
every incident of the strange scene, and walked out 
through her doorway, followed by the three grim- 
looking men. 

Mr. Appleton paced the floor. '• Infamous ! " he 
exclaimed. " The lies of three wicked children and 
a villain to stand against the spotless life of such a 
woman as she ! What is Salem coming to ? It 
should hide its head in the ocean for very shame of 
such a crime ! Witchcraft ! Yes, there must be 
witchcraft to make people believe such lies I " He 
stopped and looked at the boys. " What was the 
name of this man who brought the charges ? " 

"Jonathan Leek," answered Mat. "Joe and I 
heard him talking yesterday at the smithy. A tall 
black man from Boston, who seemed to know a 
great deal about witches." 

" I will find him," said Appleton, " I will make 
him take back these words about Mistress Swan, or 
I will cram them down his throat 1 " 

" But, Master Appleton," said Joe, " suppose he 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 159 

should make the same charges against you. He's 
a dangerous man. And then you would be arrested, 
and couldn't be of any help to Mistress Swan." 

The schoolmaster stared at Joe. "That's true," 
he answered slowly. " I must keep my head, and 
tread right warily. Yes, I must not tell these rascals 
what I have in my mind about them. But Mistress 
Swan must be saved. And, to speak the truth, I 
don't know where I can go for help to save her." 

" Joe's father and mine will help," said Mat eagerly. 
" They both know Mistress Swan. And the children 
at school will help, and perhaps their fathers too. 
We'll go home now, and tell what has happened." 
He picked up his hat, and ran out of the house, Joe 
at his heels. 

They went straight to Mr. Hamlin's house, and, 
finding him and his wife at home, told them of the 
arrest of Mistress Swan. " I expected as much," 
said Mat's father. " All Salem is talking witchcraft 
to-day, and they tell the most outrageous stories of 
Mistress Swan, and worst of all, half the people 
seem to believe them." 

" I heard a woman say to-day that Ann Swan 
gave her baby the croup last December," said Mis- 
tress Hamlin. "They're laying every ache and 
pain their children ever had at her door now. It's 
scarcely to be believed that people can be so wicked 
against a kind woman they've known all their lives." 

" But what's to be done ? " said Mr. Hamlin. " As 
matters stand the court may find Mistress Swan 



i6o HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

guilty of witchcraft without any to say a word on 
her behalf." 

"Would they listen to me?" asked Mat. "I 
could tell them how mean and cruel and hateful 
John Rowley and Mercy Booth and Susan Parsons 
are, and what the rest of us at school think about 
them." He thought a minute. "And as to that 
man, Jonathan Leek, I'd say that both Joe and I 
thought him much like a snake." 

"Jonathan Leek?" said Mr. Hamlin. "Tell me 
all you know about him, Mat." 

Mat, aided by Joe, told what he had heard Mr. 
Leek say at the smithy, and also what he had heard 
Mistress Swan say about him that afternoon. Mr. 
Hamlin got paper and pen and made notes, and 
then they planned what might be said in answer to 
the charges against Mistress Swan. " You bring 
Master Appleton here after school to-morrow. Mat," 
said his father. " Then we'll see what can be done 
to clear Mistress Ann's good name." 

School met next morning, but there was more ex- 
citement than on the day before, for all the boys and 
girls had heard how Susan Parsons and Mercy Booth 
and John Rowley were telling the most remarkable 
stories about being bewitched. The schoolmaster 
tried to teach the lessons, but it was plain that he 
was worried, and that his thoughts were not on the 
work. Just before the noon recess, Joe, who was 
reciting, saw Master Appleton look up and then 
stare at the door at the farther end of the room. Joe 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES i6i 

turned round to see what was the matter. In the 
doorway stood the town clerk, with the same two 
men who had been at Mistress Swan's. 

The clerk walked down the passageway between 
the benches, while all the children stared. He went 
up to the master's desk, stepped up on the low plat- 
form, and laid his hand on Master Appleton's 
shoulder. He was smiling, as though he took a 
certain pleasure in the work on hand. "Thomas 
Appleton," he said, " I arrest you in the name of the 
court of Salem. You are charged with witchcraft." 

The schoolmaster pulled his shoulder away from 
the clerk's hand. He looked very proud and un- 
concerned at the charge, as though he were defying 
all the officers of Salem. "Very good," said he. 
" You have arrested better people than me for such 
hocus-pocus. I should feel honored." He shut the 
school-book that lay open on his desk, and smiled 
at the children on the front row of benches. " I sup- 
pose. Master Clerk," he said, "that you chose this 
hour, when you knew I would be busy with my 
scholars, to come to arrest me, so that they might 
all see the entertainment, and thus make my arrest 
as public as possible." 

" It is some of your own scholars who bring part 
of the charges against you," retorted the clerk. 

"Aye, I know," said Master Appleton. "But 
they are not here now. Those who are here know 
me better." He looked at the boys and girls, who 
were watching intently. " I'm sorry to leave you," 



i62 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

he said. " There will be no school for several days, 
not until they can find another master to take my 
place. They say I deal in witchcraft, that I take 
wounded animals and cure them by sending their 
aches into children, that I can bewitch you so that 
you do strange things you couldn't do otherwise. 
These are just fairy tales, nonsense, the most absurd 
of stories. I know no more of witches than any one 
of you. There are no such things as witches, there 
is no such thing as the Evil Eye. But people in 
Massachusetts are believing in them, men and 
women here in Salem are letting themselves believe 
such nonsense. None can say what they will do 
next. Yet you boys and girls know there are no 
such evil spirits ; you must stand for the right and 
the truth, and deny such falsehoods. You will, I 
know. You must help to save Salem such dis- 
grace," 

The children were still for a moment, and then 
Mat spoke up. " Of course there are no witches," 
he said. " We're old enough to know that." He 
looked round the room. " All who think as the 
schoolmaster does, stand up," he commanded. 

Every boy and girl stood up. 

" I knew it," said the schoolmaster. He turned, 
smiling, to the clerk. " The children are wiser than 
their elders," he said. "There is some hope for 
Salem." 

" A very pretty scene," answered the clerk, sar- 
castically. " But the court may take a different 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 163 

view of it ; they might even think you had the chil- 
dren bewitched so's they'd do exactly what you tell 
'em to." 

"Yes, they might," agreed Master Appleton. 
" They might use anything against me. To some 
minds innocence is always the best proof of guilt. 
Yet I didn't bewitch the children ; I have only taught 
them their lessons, as I was paid to do." He took 
his hat and cloak from the peg behind his desk. "I 
am at your service." 

Smiling at his scholars, Master Appleton walked 
down the aisle to the door. As he passed Mat he 
said, " See to the dogs for me, will you ? I 
shouldn't like them to go hungry." 

Mat bobbed his head. 

The schoolmaster went out into the lane, with his 
three guards, while the children crowded to the door 
and watched until he turned the corner. 

Ill 
The fear of witches, like the fear of the plague in 
the Middle Ages, spread over Massachusetts with 
amazing rapidity in that winter and spring of 1692, 
and found one of its chief centers at Salem. Men 
and women of standing and education were arrested, 
as well as those who had few friends and little learn- 
ing, and the wildest and most improbable stories 
about their actions were told and were believed. As 
day followed day the three " afflicted children," John 
Rowley, Susan Parsons, and Mercy Booth, told 



1 64 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

more and more fantastic tales about Mistress Swan 
and Master Appleton, and Jonathan Leek spread 
these stories so thoroughly that soon there was not 
a man, woman, or child in Salem, or in the neigh- 
boring country, who had not heard how the accused 
schoolmaster and Ann Swan had bewitched the 
three. To hear a story about witchcraft at that 
time was usually to believe it, and many people had 
condemned the man and woman in their own minds 
long before the court took up the case against them. 

Mat's family, and Joe's family, however, started 
out with the determination to save Mistress Swan 
and Thomas Appleton if it could be done. Then 
these two boys urged their schoolmates, none of 
whom could believe that the teacher they were so 
fond of was a witch, to ask their parents to speak 
kindly of the two accused persons, and so there was 
soon quite a little party in Salem who protested that 
the two were innocent. Of course there were many, 
largely of the more ignorant class, like Jacob Titus, 
the blacksmith, and people who had listened to 
Jonathan Leek and fallen under his influence, who 
felt certain that the schoolmaster and Ann Swan 
were able to ride about on broomsticks when they 
had a mind to. Strange to say, some of the min- 
isters of Salem took this view too. 

Mr. Hamlin went to the jail and talked with both 
the prisoners, he visited the houses of the three 
"afflicted children" and watched their strange per- 
formances, and he sought out Jonathan Leek, who 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 165 

had suddenly become a very prominent person, and 
listened to his oily and mysterious speeches. Then 
he wrote letters to friends in Boston, and after a 
while he began to find out facts that were scarcely 
creditable to Mr. Leek's reputation. He had been 
driven out of Boston because of the falsehoods he 
had uttered about people there ; he was described as 
a cheat, a swindler, and a man who tried to get 
money from men and women by threatening to ac- 
cuse them of various crimes. Mr. Glover helped in 
this work, and so did the two boys, and in addition 
the boys looked after the dogs in the schoolmaster's 
little hospital and reported to Master Appleton how 
his charges were getting on. 

People were being condemned and hung as 
witches in Salem Village and other places, and 
things did not look too cheerful for Mat's two 
friends. Yet they were both full of patience and 
courage, and when people came to them and 
tempted them to admit that they had ill-treated the 
children, had used magic on them, or worked some 
spell over them, they always indignantly denied the 
charges and said such stories were utterly absurd. 
" I never raised a finger against a child in my life," 
said Mistress Swan at one such time, " and I never 
will, no matter what those three may say about me, 
or what you may do to me." And Master Appleton 
would say, ** Yes, it is true I have cured a number of 
dogs, but not by sending their ills into these chil- 
dren. Surely you must know that I care as much 



1 66 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

for children as for animals 1 Otherwise you'd make 
me no better than an ogre." 

" He is an ogre 1 " cried Jonathan Leek, when he 
heard what Master Appleton said. He pointed his 
lean hand at the crowd who had gathered around 
him. " Many a schoolmaster is an ogre in disguise, 
and chooses that work so that he may prey on chil- 
dren ! I know; I have seen such men before." 
And his manner was so impressive as he said this 
that many people nodded their heads and murmured 
to each other that doubtless he was right. 

So matters stood when the two prisoners, whose 
cases were so much alike that they were to be con- 
sidered together, were put on trial in Salem. Mr. 
Hamlin and Mr. Glover were there, and their sons, 
and a lawyer they had engaged to represent them. 
The court room was full to overflowing, and very 
warm, for it was midsummer. 

"How could any one believe those two guilty of 
such evil deeds ? " said Mr. Hamlin to his friends, as 
he looked at the kind and gentle Mistress Swan and 
the frank-faced Thomas Appleton. 

" People have believed such charges of men and 
women who look full as innocent," answered Mr. 
Glover. 

Many there in the court room believed that these 
two were witches as they listened to the stories the 
three "afflicted children" told, and heard Jonathan 
Leek and other grown men and women testify as to 
strange doings they had witnessed. Through all 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 167 

this the two prisoners simply looked at their fellow- 
townsfolk, as if wondering that such stories could be 
told of them, and when they were asked by the 
judges if they had done any of these things, each 
simply denied all knowledge of such events. 

Then Mr. Hamlin's lawyer rose, and he had neigh- 
bors of Mistress Swan tell how they had always re- 
spected her and how highly they thought of her, 
and how kind she had always been to their children. 
After that Mr. Hamlin told what he had discovered 
about the man Jonathan Leek, how Leek had de- 
manded money from Mistress Swan, and how she had 
refused to give him any money, saying that her hus- 
band had never owed Leek anything as a result of 
their business dealings. Here the lawyer presented 
an account-book that showed that, as an actual fact, 
Jonathan Leek had owed Richard Swan money, in- 
stead of the account standing the other way about. 
Leek looked very angry and indignant as Mr. Ham- 
lin and the lawyer related all these affairs to the 
court, and when the account-book was shown he 
jumped up, protesting loudly, saying, " Figures have 
nothing to do with the fact of this woman's being 
a witch ! " But the lawyer retorted very quickly, 
" These figures have much to do with the reason 
why you charged this woman with witchcraft ! " 

When Mr. Hamlin told what he had learned of 
Jonathan Leek's leaving Boston the man in black 
squirmed in his seat, and grew so yellow of face that 
Mat whispered to Joe, " He looks like a witch him- 



i68 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

self now, doesn't he?" There wasn't much left of 
the stranger's character when Mr. Hamlin had fin- 
ished with him, and even those people who had be- 
lieved most implicitly in him began to murmur their 
doubts to each other. 

Then came the chance for Mat to tell what he 
knew of Mistress Swan and Master Appleton. He 
told how the other children in school had never liked 
the three " afflicted children." " Those three liked 
to hurt animals," said he. " They stoned cats and 
dogs, they caught young birds, and hurt them, and 
when Master Appleton told them not to be so cruel 
they made faces at him and told false stories about 
him behind his back. Sometimes he would rescue 
birds and dogs from them, and try to mend their 
hurts, and he has a lot of dogs now in a shed back 
of Mistress Swan's house, poor dogs that nobody 
else would look after, and most of them he's cured 
of some hurt. None of us boys in school would be- 
lieve a word those three others would say, least of 
all about Master Appleton, and we'd all expect them 
to say ill things about him whenever they got the 
chance." Mat said more about the schoolmaster, 
and Joe followed him, and then other children, and 
they were all so evidently sincere, and showed such 
affection for the teacher that people began to look 
more kindly at him, and to whisper that they'd al- 
ways heard he was popular at school. " Against 
the word of one boy and two girls, who had their 
own reasons for disliking this master, we have the 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 169 

witness of these other children, who all respect and 
admire him," said the lawyer. " True it is that he 
has an almshouse for maimed and neglected an- 
imals in his yard, but should that not rather 
speak to his credit than against his honesty? 
He may know more than most of us about curing 
sores and broken bones ; but would you accuse a 
physician of dealing in witchcraft or evil arts because 
he helped the suffering who came to him ? If you 
would, then there must be evil in all men who help 
their neighbors 1 " 

Here Jacob Titus, standing in the back of the 
court room, murmured behind his hand to the man 
next him, " I always had my doubts of those who 
deal in herbs and such like. There's something 
magical in the best of it. And when it's a matter of 
dogs, why " he shrugged his shoulders, mean- 
ing clearly enough that that was carrying magic 
pretty far. 

There were others who thought as the blacksmith 
did, for many, having once got the notion that Mis- 
tress Swan and Master Appleton were witches, 
couldn't find any way to get that idea out of their 
heads. Others were wavering in their opinions, 
however, and thinking that there might perhaps be 
as much truth in the words of this woman whom 
they had always known and this schoolmaster of 
such former good repute as in the words of three 
spoiled children and a man who had been driven 
out of Boston for misdeeds. 



170 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

" There may be witches," the lawyer said, " though 
it happens that I've never met with any such myself. 
There are rumors of witchcraft all through this prov- 
ince of Massachusetts to-day, and many stories are 
told that could scarcely be understood as following 
the course of nature. But if we let ourselves suspect 
such evil things of our neighbors so readily, who 
knows when others may suspect such dealings of us 
as easily ? You," he said, and by chance he was 
looking at a stout man in front of him, " may be ac- 
cused to-morrow because your neighbor's cow sick- 
ened on the day you helped him harvest his crops. 
You," he looked at a forbidding-featured woman in 
a great gray bonnet, " may be called a witch next 
week because your suet puddings were too rich for 
the stomach of your maid. Or you," and his glance 
fell on a minister, who sat with a Bible clasped in his 
hand, " may be charged with dealings with the Evil 
One because your chimney smoked and the sparks 
frightened a horse upon the road so that he ran 
away. This is how such easy suspicions go. Within 
a month we may all be witches and warlocks, each 
man and woman accusing their nearest neighbors." 

A murmur of protest rose ; the idea w as not to be 
put up with ; and yet every one there knew that 
there was much truth in the speaker's words. 

" It happens that three children and a man from 
Boston have hit upon these two prisoners as their 
victims," went on the speaker, now looking at the 
judges, " instead of aiming their shafts at you or me. 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 171 

Yet are you or I any more honest than this woman 
who has befriended others, or this man who teaches 
and cares for maimed dogs? Are we to be their 
judges? Then, as we consider the charges against 
them, let us remember that men might bring charges 
of evil against us also, and consider whether we 
know ourselves to be more innocent than they. 
Look at Mistress Swan I Look at Thomas Apple- 
ton ! Are these two witches ? Why, men of Salem, 
the very children laugh at such a charge ! " 

The speaker sat down amid a tense silence. The 
judges withdrew, considered the matter in private, 
and then, returning, announced that in their opinion 
the charges of witchcraft against Mistress Swan and 
Master Appleton had not been proved by the evi- 
dence, and that the two prisoners might return to 
their homes. There was a buzz of excited talk for a 
few minutes, then neighbors and friends crowded 
round Mistress Swan and the schoolmaster and said 
they had never really believed the evil reports of 
them. 

So these two innocent people returned to their 
home, and men and women who had been in doubt 
before as to whether they should believe the tales of 
magic now said they had always considered the 
three " afflicted children " mischievous brats and 
wondered that their parents hadn't whipped them 
for telling such monstrous falsehoods. As for Jona- 
than Leek, when he found that he had no chance to 
injure Mistress Swan, and knew that people in Salem 



1/2 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

were beginning to hear the true story of his earlier 
career in Boston, he departed from Salem in haste, 
probably to carry his ready-made charges of witch- 
craft to other towns, where there might be people 
against whom he cherished grudges. 

Thomas Appleton returned to his school, and the 
children liked him better than ever, and brought 
him so many lame and footsore dogs to care for that 
he said he should have to take the largest building 
in town to house them all. The three " afflicted 
children " didn't go back to school, though no one 
knew whether that w^as because their parents 
thought they wouldn't be popular there after what 
had happened, or because they still considered that 
the schoolmaster might bewitch them. 

Naturally enough it took Mistress Swan and Mas- 
ter Appleton some time to forgive their townsfolk for 
treating them so badly. But the people did their 
best to show them how sorry they felt that they had 
ever suspected them of evil dealings, and in time the 
two returned to their old attitude of friendliness 
toward all their neighbors. Neither of them was 
the kind to cherish a grudge. 

Other people in Massachusetts, however, who were 
charged with being witches were not so fortunate as 
Ann Swan and Thomas Appleton. Some were 
found guilty and were executed for witchcraft. 
Then, when this strange and inhuman superstition 
had run its course, popular feeling changed quickly. 
Men and women became ashamed of what they had 



IN THE DAYS OF WITCHES 173 

said and done. The fear of witches passed into his- 
tory and became only a strange delusion of the past. 
But it had been a very real fear in Massachusetts in 
1692. 



VII 

THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 

{Pennsylvania, iyo6) 

I 

Jack Felton, coming back to his home from the 
woods that lay north of the town of Philadelphia, on 
a day in May, 1706, stopped at his friend's, Gregory 
Diggs, the shoemaker, to ask for a bit of leather for 
a sling he was making. There was an amusing 
stranger there, a round, red-faced man, lolling back 
in his chair, one knee crossed over the other. Small, 
sharp-featured Gregory was driving pegs into the 
sole of a boot while he listened to the other's talk. 
The stranger nodded to Jack. •' Howdy-do, my fine 
young Quaker lad," said he. " Do your boots need 
mending?" 

"I want a piece of leather for my sling," said 
Jack. 

" Oho, so you're playing David, are you ? Well, 
I tell you what, this settlement of Penn's is going 
to need all the Davids it can muster one of these fine 
days. And that day's not so far off, my friends." 

" What do you mean ? " asked Jack, sitting down 
in the doorway. 

"I mean," said the stranger, "that you simple 
folk along the Delaware are like fat sheep that the 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 175 

wolves have sighted. Sea-wolves, they are." He 
leaned forward, resting his elbows on his plump 
knees. " Have you ever heard of a Frenchman 
named De Castris ? " 

*• I have," said Gregory. 

" I haven't," said Jack. 

•' Well, the Frenchman has four fast frigates, and 
he's been cruising up and down the coast between 
Long Island and the Chesapeake capes, looking for 
English prey. He chased two small English cor- 
vettes up the Delaware almost to Newcastle. He's 
captured over a score of merchant ships, and a week 
ago he landed at Lewes for water and provisions, 
and carried off the pick of the live stock there." 

" And what would you have us do, Mr. Hackett ? " 
asked Gregory, picking up another boot. " Arm, and 
march up and down the river bank ? We're peace- 
able people. We try not to make any enemies, and 
so we don't expect any enemies to come against us. 
See how friendly we've lived with the Indians, while 
the Virginians have been fighting them all the time." 

The other man smiled, that superior, much-amused 
smile of the wise man arguing with the ignoramus. 
" And the sheep don't make enemies of the wolves 
either," said he. •' The sheep are peaceable beasts, 
tending to their own concerns. But that doesn't 
keep the wolves from preying on them, does it? 
Not by a long chalk, my friend Diggs. As for the 
Indians, it's only your good fortune that you haven't 
stirred them up to attack you. You don't think 



176 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

they care any more for you because you make 
treaties with them, and give them beads and trinkets 
for their land, and smoke their pipe of peace ? " 

" We've been thinking that," answered Gregory. 
" We thought we'd been treating them as good 
Christians should." 

" Oh, you foolish Quakers I " said Hackett. 
"You're worse than sheep; you're like the ostriches 
that stick their heads in the sand. Look here. Sup- 
pose the Indians should drink too much fire-water 
some day and make a raid on your farms ; where 
would your treaties be then ? Or suppose, — what's 
much more likely, — that this French privateer cap- 
tain should take it into his head to sail up the Del- 
aware and levy a ransom on your prosperous peo- 
ple, and maybe carry ofi some of your fine Quaker 
gentlemen as prisoners. What would you do then ? " 

Gregory scratched his head. '• I suppose we'd try 
to tight them off," he concluded. 

" But you wouldn't be ready. You wouldn't have 
enough guns, and powder and shot. And you 
wouldn't know what to do with the guns if you had 
them." 

"Well," the shoemaker repeated patiently, " what 
would you have us do, Mr. Hackett?" 

" I want you to prepare, Diggs, I want you to pre- 
pare. That's what His Majesty's other colonies 
have done. I want you to make sure you have 
enough guns and ammunition on hand, and know 
how to use the muskets. I want vou to set sentries 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 177 

along the river and outposts through the country 
to give you warning of any possible attack. And 
above all I want you to get rid of this Quaker 
notion that you can go on getting rich and prosper- 
ous without rousing envy in your neighbors." 

" You don't see much riches right here," said 
Gregory, glancing round at his simple, meagrely- 
furnished shop. 

'* No, not here, my honest old friend," agreed 
Hackett, and he got up and slapped the shoemaker 
on the shoulder in a friendly fashion. " But most of 
the Philadelphia people aren't like you. They're fat 
and easy-going, and they wear good clothes and 
live in tine houses. They like their comfort, these 
people of William Penn." 

" They look more like you than like me," said 
Gregory, smiling. 

The stout man laughed. " Why, so they do, so 
they do. But don't put me down for one of them I 
I'm no Quaker, Diggs. I'm a good Church of Eng- 
land man, and I believe in musket and powder- 
horn." He picked up his walking-stick, which 
leaned against his chair, and flourishing it round his 
head shot it forward toward Jack Felton as if it had 
been a dueling-sword. " There, my young friend," 
said he, " how would you parry that ? But I forget, 
Quaker lads aren't taught how to fence." 

Jack laughed at the attitude the stout man had 
struck. '* 1 know how to shoot with a bow, even if 
I can't fence," he retorted. 



178 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

" Shoot with a bow — faugh, that's Indian warfare. 
Sword and musket's what we want, Master — I don't 
know your name." 

" Jack Felton," said Gregory. " And he's the son 
of one of those very prosperous Quakers you were 
speaking of, Mr. Hackett." 

"So?" said Hackett. "Well, I trust, Master 
Felton, that you see the common sense of my argu- 
ment, and will persuade your father that it's not 
unlikely this French buccaneer De Castris may take 
it into his head to visit Philadelphia some day. 
He put on his hat and picked up his cloak. " I'm 
on my way to visit my old friend Governor John 
Evans, and tell him of the reports I bring from 
Chesapeake Bay." 

Jack stood up to let Mr. Hackett pass him, and 
then stepped into the shop. "Is what he says about 
Philadelphia and the Quakers true?" he asked the 
shoemaker. 

" I hardly know. Jack. The Friends don't believe 
in fighting, and maybe we're not as well prepared 
for defense as most of our neighbors. We've kept 
peace with the Indians by treating them fairly. 
Charles Hackett comes from Maryland, where 
they've had lots of trouble with Indians and every 
man goes armed." 

" Suppose that French captain came up the Del- 
aware and did what Mr. Hackett thought he might?" 
suggested Jack. 

Gregory shook his head. " I don't know what 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 179 

we'd do. I take it I'm like most of the others ; I 
don't like to borrow trouble, Jack." 

Jack got the leather for his sling and started home. 
The stranger's words stuck in his mind, however. 
He didn't like to think an enemy might come up 
the Delaware and do as he pleased with Philadelphia. 
It seemed to him that Mr. Hackett might be right, 
that the people ought to be prepared to defend them- 
selves. 

Mr. Felton lived in a big house at the corner of 
Second and Pine Streets. He was a well-to-do 
Quaker and a friend of John Evans, the Deputy 
Governor who represented William Penn in the 
province. After supper Jack told his father what he 
had heard at the shoemaker's. " That's idle talk," 
said his father. "The Frenchman wouldn't think 
of coming to Philadelphia, and if he did we've plenty 
of men here to protect the town." 

" But how do you know they'd do it ? " Jack asked. 
" Friends don't believe in fighting, the stranger said." 

" We don't unless we have to," agreed Mr. Felton. 
** Don't you bother about such things, Jack. Leave 
it to Governor Evans." 

Mr. Felton, however, thinking the matter over, 
decided that perhaps the governor ought to know 
that people were talking about a possible attack by 
the French privateers, and so he wrote a note and 
sent it over by Jack that evening to the governor's 
house. 

Jack thought he would like to speak to the 



i8o HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

governor himself, so he gave the servant his name, 
but not his father's note. The servant reported that 
Governor Evans would be glad to see Master Felton 
in his private office. 

In the office sat the governor and Mr. Charles 
Hackett. The governor read Mr. Felton's note. 
When he looked up he saw that Hackett was smil- 
ing at Jack. "So you've met before, have you ? " 
he said. *' It's odd that this note should be on the 
very matter we were discussing, Charles." He 
handed it to his guest, who read it rapidly. 

" So you told your father of our little chat at the 
shoemaker's, did you?" said Hackett. "What did 
he say to it ? " 

" He didn't say very much," Jack answered. 
" He told me not to bother about it." 

" You see," said Hackett, looking at the governor. 
" He said not to bother. That's what all your good 
Quaker folks will say, I dare venture." 

Governor Evans looked very thoughtful. He 
stroked his smooth-shaven cheek with his hand. 
" You may be right," he said finally. " They are a 
hard people to rouse, beyond question. I think 
we'd better try the plan you and I were talking of, 
the messenger from New Castle arriving in the 
morning with news of what happened there." 

" Make the message strong," advised Hackett. 
" Burning, plundering, and pillage." 

Governor Evans nodded his head. " To-morrow 
will be weekly meeting-day," he said thoughtfully. 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE i8i 

" That'll be as good a time as any to try the plan." 
He turned to Jack. "Thank your father for his 
message, and tell him that I've already heard the 
news of the French frigates he speaks of. Good- 
night." 

Jack bowed to the governor and to Mr. Hackett, 
who beamed at him and waved his hand in friendly 
salute. 

Mystified at the governor's words about a mes- 
senger from New Castle and at Mr. Hackett's men- 
tion of burning, plundering, and pillage, Jack went 
home, and gave his father the governor's answer to 
his note. He went to bed, wondering if it was 
possible that this quiet little town of Philadelphia, so 
peaceably settled on the shore of the Delaware, could 
possibly be the object of an enemy's attack. 

Next day was meeting-day, and as Jack, his 
father and mother, his younger brother and sister, 
went to the red brick meeting-house, Philadelphia 
was calmly basking in the sunshine of a bright May 
morning. As Mr. Hackett had said, most of the 
people looked prosperous. William Penn, the pro- 
prietor of the province of Pennsylvania, had been 
generous in his dealings with the settlers. Land 
was plentiful, and farms, with average care and cul- 
tivation, produced splendid crops. The houses in the 
section near the Delaware, which was the central 
part of town, stood in their own gardens, with care- 
fully kept lawns and flower-beds. People gave each 
other friendly greetings in passing. It would have 



i82 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

been hard to find a more peaceful-looking com- 
munity. 

Jack sat quietly through the meeting, and then 
hurried out of the meeting-house to join some other 
boys. A change had come over the street outside. 
People were hurrying along it ; some were talking 
excitedly on the corners. Two stout men, who 
looked as if they rarely took any exercise, were go- 
ing at a double-quick pace toward Chestnut Street, 

"What are they hurrying for?" Jack asked the 
two other boys who had come from the meeting- 
house. 

" I don't know," answered George Logan. 

" Let's go see," said Peter Black. 

The three started for Chestnut Street, a couple of 
squares away. As they ran along other boys and 
men joined them, people who were talking stopped 
and headed after the crowd, almost all those who 
had been to Meeting showed their curiosity by walk- 
ing in the same direction. The quiet street was 
filled with bustle and noise. 

There were many people at the crossing of Third 
and Chestnut Streets ; indeed it looked as if most of 
Philadelphia was there. Jack caught snatches of 
sentences. "A messenger from down the river." 
. . . " Word from New Castle." ..." Going 
to attack us." ..." The French ships " : — such 
were some of the words. 

The boys made their way through the crowd until 
they looked up Chestnut Street. People were flock- 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 183 

ing down there too. Jack didn't know there were 
so many people in the town as he saw in the streets. 
Then out from Fourth Street rode three men on 
horseback and came down Chestnut toward the 
thickest of the crowd. The riders were Governor 
Evans, his secretary, and Charles Hackett. 

The governor reined up and held out his gloved 
hand to silence the babel of voices. *' I have news 
for you ! " he cried. The crowd quieted. " A mes- 
senger has come from New Castle with word that a 
French squadron is sailing up the Delaware ! They 
have chased two English ships up the bay ! Their 
crews landed at Lewes, burned the town, plundered 
and pillaged, and carried off prisoners and cattle ! 
To arms, lest we share the same fate ! To arms, to 
defend our homes and families ! Get your arms and 
make ready to obey the orders I shall issue later 1 " 
He drew his sword and pointed it toward the Dela- 
ware. " Let us show the enemy we are ready for 
him!" 

There was a moment's silence, then a few shouts, 
then the crowd began to make away by the side- 
streets, talking excitedly, gesticulating, very much 
startled at the governor's news. They knew that the 
English and Dutch settlements along the Atlantic 
Ocean had often had to defend themselves against en- 
emies, both white and red, but here in Pennsylvania 
there had practically been no need of defense ; they had 
always been on good terms with their Indian neigh- 
bors, and no other enemies had appeared. Now the 



1 84 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

French privateers meant to treat their town as they 
had already treated Lewes. Burn, plunder, and pil- 
lage ! There was no good reason for such an at- 
tack. They had done nothing to harm the French. 
They couldn't understand why any one should wish 
to make war on them when they were such peace- 
able people, always strictly minding their own busi- 
ness. Yet there were the governor's words that the 
French frigates were sailing up the Delaware, and 
word had already reached the town through other 
channels telling of the attack on Lewes, though the 
other reports hadn't made the matter out as bad as 
had the governor's messenger. Well, it looked as 
though, Quakers or not, they would have to do as 
Governor Evans bade. 

Jack ran all the way home. Everywhere people 
were telling each other the news. Even in front of 
the meeting-house there was an excited group. 
Philadelphia was no longer peaceful ; there was an 
entirely new thrill in the air. 

Jack's family had not yet returned. He hurried 
into the house, and up to the attic where his father's 
musket hung on the wall. He took it down, he 
found a powder-horn in a chest, he pulled out a 
sword from behind some boxes in a corner. With 
musket and sword and powder-horn in his arms he 
went down-stairs. The family were just coming in 
from the street. He held out sword and musket. 
'* Here are our arms, father 1 " he exclaimed. 

Mr. Felton could not help smiling at the excited 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 185 

face of his son. " You don't intend to be caught 
napping, do you, Jack ? " said he. " Well, I don't 
think the French will attack us before dinner. 
You'd better put the weapons away for a while." 

II 

There were not many people in Philadelphia who 
took the governor's call to arms as lightly as did Mr. 
Felton. Most of them were scared half out of their 
wits, and pictured to themselves the French raiders 
marching into their houses and carrying off all their 
valuables, to say nothing of ill-treating themselves. 
They did not stop to consider that the men of Phila- 
delphia must greatly outnumber the raiders, and that, 
properly armed, they ought to have little trouble in 
keeping the enemy at bay. All they appeared to 
think of was that the enemy were fierce, fighting 
men, and that they must hand over their precious 
household goods at the pirates' demand. 

Many households had no firearms at all, for the 
province had had small need of them. But even 
where there were muskets the men seemed very 
little disposed to make them ready for use. The 
Quakers didn't want to fight, that was the long and 
short of it Wherever men did get out their mus- 
kets and prepare to obey the governor's summons 
to defense they were in almost all cases men who 
were not Quakers. But the Quakers did not intend 
to hand over their valuables if they could possibly 
help it. 



1 86 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Some bundled their silver and other prized pos- 
sessions into carriages and wagons and drove their 
families out into the country, far from the Delaware. 
They took shelter in farmhouses and even in barns, 
intending to stay there until the French frigates 
should have come and gone. Others simply took 
their possessions out of town and hid them in the 
woods, returning to their homes in town. Every one 
seemed to be busy hiding whatever they could ; 
much more concerned about that than about pre- 
paring for defense, as Governor Evans wanted. 

Though his father was inclined to go slowly both 
in arming and in hiding their valuables, Jack Felton 
was not. The boy who lived in the next house, 
Peter Black, had a talk with Jack right after dinner. 
Peter Black's mother was a widow, and Peter felt 
that it was his duty to save the family heirlooms, as 
he saw the neighbors planning to save theirs. So 
Peter and Jack hurried out into the country north 
of Philadelphia. Since the French ships would 
come from the south they thought the northern 
country would be the safer. Their road took them 
by Gregory Diggs' shop, on the outskirts of town, 
and they stopped there for a few minutes. 

The little shoemaker had his gun lying on the 
table. "Well, Master Jack," he said, grinning, " I 
hear the governor's given the alarm. I got out my 
gun so as not to disappoint Mr. Hackett if he comes 
along." 

" We're going to look for a good place to hide 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 187 

things," said Jack. "What are you going to do 
with the things in your house ? " 

Gregory looked round his shop, at the unplastered 
walls, the plain, home-made furniture, the few pots 
and pans that stood near his hearth. " 1 don't 
think there's much here for me to hide," said he. 
" The French can take all my goods if they want to. 
1 could make boots out under a tree if they care to 
burn my house. You see that's one of the advan- 
tages of being poor, you don't lose any sleep think- 
ing about robbers." 

** Peter's mother has a lot of things the raiders 
might take," explained Jack. " Do you know a 
good hiding-place ? " 

" There's a place up in the woods, along a creek, 
that ought to be pretty safe," said Gregory. " I'll 
go along to show you." 

Shouldering his musket, which seemed to be his 
one valuable possession, the shoemaker led the two 
boys along the road to the woods. There he took 
a path that presently brought them to a little stream. 
The banks were covered with violets right down to 
the water's edge. " There's a cave in the bank a 
little farther up-stream," he said. "I'll show you 
some stepping-stones." 

They crossed by the stones and found the place 
where the bank revealed an opening. It was quite 
large enough to hold all that Peter wanted to stow 
away. " I'll make a door so no one will suspect it's 
there," said Gregory. 



1 88 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

He took out his knife, and hunting among the 
trees found several where the bark was covered with 
gray-green lichens. Stripping off these pieces of 
bark he brought them back to the cave. Then he 
took some narrow strips of leather from his pocket, 
such strips as shoemakers use for lacing, and mak- 
ing eyelets near the edges of the bark, he fastened 
them together with the lacings. This made a bark 
cover more than big enough to close the open- 
ing in the bank. Gregory set it in place, then 
trimmed the edges so that it fitted neatly. He dug 
up some of the clumps of violets and replanted 
them at the base of the bark door, " Now I'll 
defy any one to find that cave," he said. " It's 
the safest hiding-place in the province of Pennsyl- 
vania." 

" I'll mark a couple of trees so I can find it again," 
said Peter. With his knife he cut some notches 
in a couple of willows that bordered the stream. 
As they went back through the woods both boys 
noted the trail carefully, so that they might readily 
find it another time. 

On the road wagons and carriages passed them, 
people flying out of town through fear of the enemy. 
The shoemaker, his musket perched on his shoulder, 
in spite of his small size was the most martial figure 
to be seen. " I'm afraid our good folk are more 
bent on hiding than on fighting," Gregory said with 
a chuckle. " Well, perhaps I'd be the same if I had 
something to hide." 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 189 

" Do you think Mr. Hackett was right about our 
people not being ready to fight ? " Jack asked. 

" I think it looks very much that way," said 
Gregory. "I've seen a lot of people on this road 
to-day, but not one with a gun." 

Leaving Gregory at his house. Jack and Peter 
walked east to the river and followed the foot-path 
along the Delaware. SkifTs, filled with household 
goods, were being rowed up-stream. Families were 
seeking refuge in the country north of town. Men 
and boys along the shore were calling words of ad- 
vice or derision to the rivercraft. At one place a man 
was shouting, " There's the French frigates coming 
up on the Jersey side 1 " The rowers paddled faster, 
glancing back over their shoulders to see if the 
alarm was true. The man who had shouted and the 
others within hearing on the bank laughed at the 
rowers. The only boats on the Delaware appeared 
to be those manned by frightened householders. 

" Nobody's doing anything to build defenses in 
case the French frigates do come," said Jack. And 
indeed there was not a sign of defense anywhere 
along the shore. If the frigates came they could 
fire at Philadelphia without an answering shot. 

When they reached the center of the town the 
boys found the same confusion. People were talk- 
ing on street-corners ; some were reading the notices 
that Governor Evans had posted, calling on the men 
to meet him next day with arms and ammunition. 
He stated that he wanted to organize a well-equipped 



igo HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

militia in case there should be any need of defense. 
But the boys heard none speak with enthusiasm of 
the governor's plan. 

When he got home Jack told his father what he 
and Peter had done. " Would you like me to take 
some of our things there too?" he asked. '• I'm 
sure no one could possibly find the place." 

•' No," said Mr. Felton, " 1 think we'll keep our 
things in our own house. I'm not going to be 
driven into hiding just because of a rumor." Even 
Mr. Felton, intelligent man though he w^as, did not 
seem inclined to look with favor on the notion of 
armed defense. 

After supper Jack saw the man who lived across 
the street putting some boxes into a cart before his 
door. Jack watched him cord and strap the boxes 
in the cart. *' I'm taking my wife and baby into the 
country for a few days," the neighbor explained. 

" And you're coming back yourself?" Jack asked. 

" I don't think so." The neighbor shook his head. 
"I'm not a fighting man ; I don't believe in shedding 
blood. I'm sure no good Quaker could approve of 
warfare. I'll stay away till the town's quiet again." 

" But suppose the French take the town and hold 
on to it," said Jack. " Perhaps you couldn't get 
your house again." 

** Well, there's plenty of country for us all," an- 
swered the other. 

•' I suppose you're right," said Jack. " Most 
people seem to think as you do. But somehow I 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 191 

can't understand how so many people are willing to 
give in to so few. Aren't our men in Philadelphia 
as big and strong as the Frenchmen ? " 

" Why yes, of course they are, Jack. But the 
French come with firearms, and we don't approve 
of firearms. We'd be glad to reason with them, if 
they'd listen to us. But men with guns don't 
generally want to listen to reason." 

"And because they won't listen we run away," 
said Jack. " I can't understand that." 

" You will when you're older," said the man, and 
went indoors for another box. 

Jack went to Peter Black's, and helped him put 
his mother's silverware and valuables, securely tied 
in a sack, into a small hand-cart. Together the boys 
pushed the cart through the town and in the direc- 
tion of the hiding-place. They secreted the sack in 
the cave beside the brook, and trundled the cart 
back to Gregory's shop. The night was fair and 
warm, and the shoemaker was sitting outside his 
house. *• The town must be pretty empty by now," 
he said. ** I've seen so many people hurrying 
away. Soon there'll be nothing left there but the 
governor and some stray cats and dogs. All our 
good citizens seem to prefer to spend the spring in 
the country." 

" Come down to the Delaware with us, Mr. 
Diggs," urged Jack. '* We wanted to leave Peter's 
cart here and go back by the river. It's fine at 
night." 



192 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

" I know what you want," said Gregory, nodding 
very wisely. "You want to catch the first sight 
of the French frigates. Very well, I'll go along with 
you. Only you must let me get my pistol. I'm not 
going to be caught unarmed by the enemy." 

The shoemaker, his pistol stuck in his belt, and 
the two boys struck across for the river. The sky 
was full of stars, and when they reached the bank 
they could easily make out the low-lying Jersey 
shore across the Delaware. All shipping, except a 
few small skiffs, had disappeared. " The big boats 
have run before the storm," said Gregory, " and the 
little ones are ready to make for the creeks at the 
first alarm. The French won't find any shipping 
here at any rate." 

They went along the shore until they came to the 
southern end of the town. Even on the wharves 
there were very few men. " I think we'll have to be 
the lookouts," said Gregory, with a chuckle. " Here's 
a pile of logs. Let's sit here and watch for the 
frigates." 

Down the three sat, the little shoemaker in the 
middle. "I think," said Jack thoughtfully, "that 
you're the only person in town who'd want to fight 
the enemy, unless perhaps Governor Evans would. 
I think I'd hate to run away as soon as we saw his 
ships. Wouldn't you hate to, Peter ? " 

" Now we've hid those things," said Peter, " I'd 
like to stay and see the fun." 

" Of course you would," agreed Gregory. " I'll 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 193 

tell you how it is, my lads. There aren't many ad- 
venturers in this sober town of ours, only a few boys 
and an old shoemaker." 

Jack glanced at the little man, and caught the 
glint of starlight on the barrel of his pistol. " I 
shouldn't think you'd care for adventures as much 
as some other people would, — well, as my father 
would or the man who lives across the street from 
us." 

Gregory clapped his hand on Jack's knee. " That's 
just the puzzle of it," he said. "You never can tell 
who are the real adventurers. Most boys are ; but 
when they grow up they forget the taste and smell 
of adventure. They don't want to think of any pi- 
rates stealing up the Delaware. They don't want to 
have any pirates anywhere." 

*' I like pirates," announced Peter. 

•' Of course you do," said Gregory, clapping his 
free hand on Peter's knee. " So do I. I like to 
think there's a chance of those frigates pointing up 
the river any minute. But most of the people in 
town would say I was mad if I told them that. 
They'd say it was because I hadn't anything to lose. 
It's riches that make folks cautious." 

" I see a light down there 1 " exclaimed Peter, 
pointing down the shore. 

All three jumped up and peered through the dark- 
ness. The light proved to be a lantern in the bow 
of a small skiff skirting the bank. " That's not the 
frigates," said Gregory. " I almost hoped it was. 



194 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Well, I don't suppose the safety of Philadelphia de- 
pends on our keeping watch any longer to-night. 
It's getting late. Come on, my brave adventurers." 

Back to town they went, and said good-night to 
Gregory. As Jack passed the governor's house he 
saw a familiar figure standing at the front gate. 
The stout Mr. Hackett likewise recognized Jack. 
" So you've not fled from town like the rest?" said 
the man from Maryland. " The governor's called 
the men to meet him to-morrow in the field on Lo- 
cust Street ; but I misdoubt if there'll be many left 
to join him." 

" There's one who will be there," answered Jack, 
pointing down the street after Gregory. 

" Who's that ? " inquired Mr. Hackett. 

" Gregory Diggs, the shoemaker. He's got a gun 
and a pistol, and he won't run away." 

" The litde shoemaker ? " said Mr. Hackett. *• So 
he's a fighting man, is he? I've always liked him, 
but I didn't know he had so much spirit." 

" He's a real adventurer," declared Jack. " He 
thinks it may be because he's poor and hasn't any 
family ; but I don't think that's it. I think he 
couldn't help being that way anyhow. I want to 
be like him when I grow up." 

" Good for you ! " exclaimed Mr. Hackett. " Then 
I suppose we may count on having you at the gov- 
ernor's muster to-morrow." 

" I'll be there," said Jack. " I'm big enough to 
handle a gun." 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 195 

" I'll be there too," put in Peter, who had been 
listening to the talk with the greatest interest. 

"Good enough," said Mr. Hackett. "Gregory 
and you boys ought to put some of these smug peo- 
ple to shame. I'll look for you at the meeting in 
the morning." 

Ill 

Jack and Peter were at the meeting-place on Lo- 
cust Street next morning, although each only 
brought a heavy stick as his weapon of defense. 
Jack's father had refused to let his son have the 
musket, saying that he would be much more apt to 
harm himself with it than to injure an enemy. Mrs. 
Black had not only forbidden Peter to handle any- 
thing that would shoot, but had intimated that she 
thought Governor Evans and all the people who 
went to his militia meeting were behaving much more 
like savages than like good Christians. So the 
boys had to put up with the hickory sticks for 
weapons, though each carried a sling and a pocketful 
of pebbles, which might be useful for long-distance 
fighting. 

Gregory was there with his gun, and the three 
friends stood under the shade of a maple and waited 
for the rest of the volunteer army to appear. A few 
men and boys were lounging out in the road, appar- 
ently more interested in watching what was going 
to happen than in taking part in it. " Where are 
our gallant soldiers ? " said Gregory, with a grin. 



196 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Jack counted the men who had come, with their 
muskets, into the field. "Six besides us," he an- 
nounced. 

" That'll make a good-sized army," said Gregory, 
a twinkle in his eye. 

There were only the six others at the meeting- 
place when Governor Evans, his secretary, and Mr. 
Hackett arrived. The governor looked disgusted. 
He muttered to his two companions. Then he 
beckoned the seven men and the two boys toward 
him. "So this is Philadelphia's volunteer militia, 
is it?" he said. "These are the troops I could 
count on to defend our homes from an enemy?" 
Then his angry brow softened. " I don't blame 
you, my good friends. You are doing your best. 
But I shouldn't like to express my opinion of your 
fellow-townsfolk." 

The governor turned to Hackett. "I might as 
well disband the militia, eh ? The night-watchmen 
of the town will furnish as good defense." 

" Unless you choose to keep your army of seven 
men and two boys to shame the worthy citizens," 
suggested Hackett. 

" You can't shame them I " snorted Governor 
Evans. "Their heads are made of pillow-slips 
stuffed with feathers ; and goose-feathers at that 1 " 
He looked again at the volunteer soldiers. " My 
secretary will take your names," he said, " and I'll 
know who to call on if I need help. Many thanks 
to you all." 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 197 

As they were leaving the field Hackett came over 
to Gregory and the two boys. " I suspected your 
good people would act like this," said he. " Though 
I'd no idea that only seven men would put in an 
appearance. I'll have to wash my hands of your 
Quaker colony. I never saw anything to equal it. 
The Saints keep you from trouble 1 I doubt if 
you'll be able to keep yourselves out of it." 

Now Gregory was a little nettled at the other's 
superior manner. " We've been able to keep out of 
it so far," he retorted, " and I don't see but what 
charity toward others mayn't keep us out of it in the 
future. William Penn is a just man, and has bade 
us act justly toward all others. We hoped to leave 
fighting and all warlike things behind us when we 
left Europe. Because there's been fighting in Mass- 
achusetts and Virginia is no reason why there 
should be such matters here." 

" So you think Penn's colony is different from the 
others, do you ? " asked Hackett. 

" I think you and your Cavalier friends in Mary- 
land are more eager to draw your swords than we 
are here," said the shrewd shoemaker. 

" Now, by Jupiter, I think you're right ! " agreed 
Hackett, with a laugh. " Every man to his own kind. 
I much prefer Lord Baltimore to your good William 
Penn. I've seen enough of your worthy Quaker 
tradesmen. I must get back to Chesapeake Bay." 

Jack and Peter, sitting on the steps of Mr. Felton's 
house that afternoon, saw a number of men who 



198 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

worked on the river-front go past in the street, guns 
in their hands. There were five or six in the first 
group, then a few more, then a larger number. 
There were small farmers from the southern side of 
the town, there were servants, there were negroes. 
None of those who went by appeared to be of the 
wealthy, Quaker class. " Where are they going ? " 
Jack asked presently. 

" Let's go find out," suggested Peter. 

The boys followed the groups, which grew in size 
as men from other streets joined in the current. 
They went to Society Hill on the outskirts of the 
town. There a crowd had already gathered, some 
with firearms, some without. The boys pushed 
their way through the crowd until they reached the 
front edge. There they heard one speaker after an- 
other addressing the throng. The speakers all 
declared that they would go to the governor, ask 
for weapons, and tell him they were ready to march 
against the enemy whenever he should give the 
order. 

Nearly seven hundred men met on Society Hill 
that day and volunteered for military service. Per- 
haps the word had gone around that the leading 
men of the colony had failed to meet the governor, 
and these men meant to show that there were some 
at least he could rely on. However that was, this 
gathering shamed the other meeting, and when it 
broke up it sent its delegates to report to Governor 
Evans. 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 199 

The boys stopped to tell Gregory Diggs what 
they had seen. 

" Aye," said Gregory, when he had heard the type 
of men who made up this second meeting, " wealth 
and position make men timid. And then Quakers 
are over-cautious folk. I know how it is. 1 found it 
hard enough to shoulder my gun and make up my 
mind to join the militia. Like as not I wouldn't 
have volunteered at all if you two boys hadn't 
seemed to shame me into it. But that's the way it 
is, our good, respectable folk won't fight, and the 
only ones the governor can rely on are the poor and 
the down-at-heels, and a penniless shoemaker and 
two boys. Master Hackett was right about Penn's 
province." 

At his home Jack told his father of the day's hap- 
penings. " And I'm very much surprised our friends 
and neighbors didn't help Governor Evans better," 
he concluded. 

" Only seven at one meeting, and a great many 
at the other?" said Mr. Felton. "Well, that shows 
our friends aren't very warlike, doesn't it, Jack?" 

" But I think they ought to be," protested the boy. 

"So does Governor Evans," agreed Mr. Felton. 
" And it's my opinion that he and that truculent 
friend of his, Charles Hackett, planned this whole 
scare just to see how warlike the people of Phila- 
delphia are. I think he arranged to have that 
messenger arrive from Maryland with that story 
about the French frigates. It's true enough they 



200 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

landed at Lewes, but they did little harm there be- 
yond taking a few cattle and some wood and water 
they needed. I don't believe they had the slightest 
intention of coming up the river to Philadelphia. 
But it gave the governor a good chance to see what 
the people would do if the French had been coming." 

" Most of the people believed it, or they wouldn't 
have hidden their valuables, and so many of them 
run away," said Jack. 

" Oh, yes, they believed it," assented Mr. Felton. 
" And I guess the governor is thoroughly out of 
temper with most of us. But as a matter of fact he 
didn't need any militia to protect us from a raid." 

That was the truth of the situation, as Philadel- 
phia found out a few days later. The governor had 
laid a plot to find out what the people would do if 
their town were threatened with attack by an enemy. 
He thought that the Delaware River was insuffi- 
ciently protected. He wanted to form a strong 
militia. His ruse had worked ; but to his disgust 
he found that the more respectable and wealthy part 
of the community, the Quaker portion, had no wish 
either to strengthen the defenses of the Delaware or 
to enroll in a militia. His stratagem had at least 
taught him that much about them. 

The Quakers brought the goods they had hidden 
back to town ; those who had gone into the country 
returned to their homes as soon as it was known 
that the French frigates had sailed down the Dela- 
ware to the sea instead of up it to Philadelphia. 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 20i 

They did not like Governor Evans for the trick he 
had played on them. As the governor himself said, 
" For weeks afterward they would stand on the 
other side of the street and make faces at me as I 
passed by." 

As a result of the governor's stratagem most of 
the Quakers in Philadelphia signed a petition to 
William Penn, who was then in England, urging 
him to remove Evans from the governorship. Will- 
iam Penn did not like to do this. He had appointed 
Evans at the suggestion of some very powerful men 
at the English Court, and he did not want to an- 
tagonize them, or Evans himself for that matter, for 
so slight a cause. He wrote a letter to Evans, how- 
ever, mildly reproving him for the trick he had 
played, and making it clear that he himself was no 
more in favor of warlike measures than were the 
Quakers in his colony. Governor Evans held his 
office for almost three years after this event, and 
was finally called back to England for very different 
reasons. 

Penn's province did have less warfare than the 
neighboring colonies, partly because of the just way 
in which Penn and his settlers dealt with the In- 
dians, partly by good fortune. No enemy attacked 
Philadelphia. But as men pushed out into the 
country west of the Delaware they began to come 
into conflict with the Indians. Often these setders 
were able to protect themselves, but sometimes they 
felt that the men living securely in Philadelphia 



202 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

ought to help them in their effort to enlarge the 
province. After the defeat of the English General 
Braddock by French and Indians in western Penn- 
sylvania the settlers found the Indians more difficult 
to handle. So the men of the frontier formed inde- 
pendent companies of riflemen and fought in their 
own fashion. They demanded, however, that the 
governor and General Assembly at Philadelphia 
should aid them with supplies, if they were unwill- 
ing to furnish soldiers. 

The Assembly in Philadelphia refused to send the 
supplies. The news spread along the border, and 
the settlers, the mountaineers and trappers, set out 
for the Quaker city on the Delaware. Four or five 
hundred of them marched into town, men clad in 
buckskin, their hair worn long, armed with rifles, 
powder-horns, bullet-pouches, hunting-knives, and 
even tomahawks they had taken from Indians. 
Philadelphia was used to seeing a few of such hunt- 
ers on her streets, but the good people grew uneasy 
at the appearance of so many of them at one time. 
The mountaineers swaggered and blustered as they 
passed the quiet Quakers. They let it be known 
that if the Assembly refused to vote them the sup- 
plies they wanted they would take supplies wher- 
ever they could find them. 

Pressed by the frontiersmen, the Assembly finally 
voted the supplies. Then the men in buckskin went 
back to hold the borders against the Indians. 

Later, however, Philadelphia received another 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 203 

visit from much more unruly mountaineers. A 
large number of these men, known as the Paxton 
boys, met a battalion of British regulars at Lancas- 
ter, demanded the latter's horses and ammunition 
wagons, and told them that '* if they fired so much 
as one shot their scalps would ornament every cabin 
from the Susquehanna to the Ohio." 

The regulars didn't fire, and the mountaineers 
helped themselves to everything they wanted and 
set out for Philadelphia. Some Indians were being 
held as prisoners in the town, and the Paxton boys, 
growing insolent with power as they saw British 
regulars and Quaker farmers yielding to their or- 
ders, determined to make the people of Philadelphia 
give the Indians to them. The mountaineers 
marched to the high ground of Germantown, north 
of the town, nearly a thousand in number, and sent 
their envoys to the town officers. The officers knew, 
quite as well as Governor Evans had known before, 
that there was no militia sufficient to take the field 
against the frontiersmen, and that the citizens would 
never arm against them. The leading people of the 
town went to talk with the Paxton boys, trying to 
persuade them to leave peacefully. Finally by 
agreeing to give the mountaineers everything they 
asked, except only the opportunity to massacre the 
captive Indians, the townspeople succeeded in per- 
suading their unwelcome visitors to leave. For 
long, however, the men of the frontiers and the 
mountains looked on the people who dwelt along 



204 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the Delaware as a cowardly race, who had to be 
bullied before they would do their share in protect- 
ing the province. 

The governors of Pennsylvania were not always 
as fair in dealing with their neighbors as the people 
were. When John Penn, grandson of William Penn, 
held the office of governor he sent a gang of rascals 
to attack men from Connecticut who had settled in 
the Wyoming Valley, which was claimed by Penn 
as part of his province. The settlers had built 
homes and planted crops in the Wyoming Valley, 
and they had no intention of letting John Penn's 
mercenary troopers despoil them without a fight. 
They built a fort, and defied the governor's soldiers. 
John Penn's men had finally to retreat before their 
stubborn resistance. 

The attack on the Wyoming settlers was in 1770, 
and only five years later the men of Lexington and 
Concord fired the shots that were to echo from New 
Hampshire to Georgia. In the war that followed 
Pennsylvania did her part. Philadelphia, then the 
leading city of the colonies, became the home of the 
new government. In the very street where Gov- 
ernor Evans had urged the townsfolk to organize a 
militia to fight a few French frigates, men went to 
Independence Hall to proclaim a Declaration of In- 
dependence against the king of England. No one 
could have accused Philadelphia in July, 1776, of 
a lack of patriotic spirit. The Liberty Bell rang out 
its message to all, to the Quaker descendants of 



THE ATTACK ON THE DELAWARE 205 

William Penn's first settlers as well as to those of 
other faiths who had come to his province since, and 
all alike responded to its appeal to proclaim liberty 
throughout the world. 



VIII 

THE PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN 
HARBOR 

{South Carolina, 1718) 

I 

Antony Evans was rowing slowly round the 
southern point of Charles Town, the bow of his boat 
pointing out across the broad expanse of water that 
lay to the east. It was early morning of a bright 
summer day, and the harbor looked very inviting, 
the breeze freshening it with little dancing waves of 
deep blue, tipped with silver, and bringing the salt 
fragrance of the ocean to the sunlit town. Deep 
woods ringed the bay ; here and there tall, stately 
palmettos standing out on little headlands, looking 
like sentries stationed along the shore to keep all 
enemies away. 

Antony loosened his shirt at the throat and rolled 
his sleeves higher up on his sunburned arms. He 
had finished school a few days before, and was to 
have a fortnight's holiday before starting work in 
his father's warehouse. He loved the water, the two 
rivers that held his home-town in their wide-stretched 
arms ; the little creeks that wound into the wilder- 
ness, teeming with fish and game ; the wide bay, and 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 207 

the open ocean. His idea of a holiday was to fish 
or swim, row or sail, and he meant to spend every- 
day of his vacation on the water. In the bow of his 
boat was a tin box, and in that box were bread and 
cold meat and cake, and a bottle of milk — his lunch, 
and possibly his supper too. 

Slowly the town receded across the gleaming 
water. It grew smaller and smaller as Antony 
watched it from his boat, until it looked to him like 
a mere handful of toy houses instead of the largest 
settlement in His Majesty's colony of South Caro- 
lina. He half-shut his eyes and rested on his oars, 
letting the wind and the waves gently rock his boat. 
Now Charles Town became a mere point, a spot of 
color on the long, level stretch of green. He opened 
his eyes and looked over his shoulder at the wide 
expanse of blue. Then he pulled toward the south- 
ern shore, planning to follow it for a time. There 
would be more shade there as the sun grew warmer. 

The depths of the woods looked very cool and 
inviting as he rowed along close to them. Great 
festoons of gray moss hung from the boughs of the 
live-oaks, festoons that were pink or pale lavender 
where the sun shone on them. He paddled along 
slowly, letting the water drip from the blades of his 
oars, until the town had disappeared around the 
curve of the forest and he was alone with the waves 
and the trees. 

The sun, almost directly overhead, and his appe- 
tite, presently suggested to him that it was time for 



208 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

lunch. He chose a little bay with a sandy beach, 
and running his boat aground, landed, carrying the 
precious tin box with him. There was a comforta- 
ble mossy seat under a big palmetto, and here he 
ate part of his provisions, and then, rolling his coat 
into a pillow, prepared to take a nap. The air was 
full of spices from the woods, warm and sleep- 
beguiling ; he had slept an hour before he waked, 
stretched his rested muscles, and went back to the 
boat. 

He had a mind to do a little exploring along this 
southern shore. The water was smooth, and he felt 
like rowing. Rapidly he traveled along the shore, 
peering into bays and inlets, covering long stretches 
of thick forest, while the sun made his westward 
journey, the air grew cooler, and the shade stretched 
farther across the sea. There would be a moon to 
see him home again, and he was weatherwise enough 
to know that he had nothing to fear from the wind. 

The sun was almost setting when the rowboat 
rounded a wooded point and swung into a bay. 
Antony was following the shore-line, so he did not 
bother to look around, but pulled steadily ahead, 
keeping about the same distance from the bank. 
Then, to his great surprise, a voice directly ahead 
hailed him. " Look where you're going, son 1 
Ease up a bit on your oars, and you'll get to us 
without bumping." 

He looked around and saw three men fishing from 
a boat. They must have kept very quiet not to 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 209 

have attracted his attention. He slowed the speed 
of his boat by dragging his oars in the water, but 
even so he swept pretty close to the fishermen, and 
one of them, with a quick turn of his own oar, 
brought the larger boat side-on to Antony's. 

" Pull in your oar," the man ordered. To avoid a 
collision Antony obeyed. The man caught the gun- 
wale of Antony's boat, bringing the two side by 
side. 

All three of the men were grinning. " Well, now, 
lad," said the man at the oars, " where were ye 
bound at such a pace ? Going to row across the 
ocean or down to St. Augustine ? Bound out from 
Charles Town, weren't ye?" 

Antony smiled. " I was doing a little exploring," 
he answered. " I didn't know there were any fish- 
ermen down along here." 

The man's grin widened. " Ye didn't, eh ? Well, 
there's quite a lot of us fishermen down along here. 
Take a look." He gestured over his shoulder with 
his thumb. Antony turned and saw that at the 
other end of the bay were a number of boats, men 
on the beach, and that the hull and spars of a good- 
sized ship stood out beyond the trees of the next 
headland. 

The man in the bow of the other boat, a slim, dark 
fellow with a straggling black mustache, pulled in 
his fishing-line. "An' now you've done your ex- 
ploring, you'll make us a little visit. It wouldn't do 
to go right back to Charles Town to-night." He 



2IO HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

stood up, and with the agility of a cat stepped from 
his boat to Antony's and sat down on the stern-seat. 

Antony had plenty of nerve, but somehow neither 
the words of the man at the oars nor the perform- 
ance of the dark fellow was altogether reassuring. 
The two men now in the other boat were big 
swarthy chaps, with many strange designs tattooed on 
their brawny arms ; and the one who sat in the stern 
wore gilded earrings and had a good-sized sheath- 
knife fastened to his belt. They didn't look like the 
men he was used to seeing about Charles Town. 

They weren't disagreeable, however. The man at 
the oars gave Antony's boat a slight shove, which 
sent them some distance apart, and then dropped 
his fishing-line into the water again. " See you two 
later," he said, still grinning. " Keep an eye on the 
lad, Nick." 

Nick sat leaning forward, his arms on his knees, 
his black eyes twinkling at Antony. " Don't you be 
feared of this nest," said he. " I don't say that 
some mightn't well be, but not a lively young limb 
like you. What's your name ? " 

Antony told him, " And why might some be 
afraid?" he asked, his curiosity rising. 

" Because," said Nick, " that sloop round the point 
belongs to old man Teach, and she flies a most on- 
common flag at her masthead." 

" Blackbeard ! " exclaimed the boy, his eyes wide 
with surprise and sudden fear. 

"Now don't be scared," said Nick. "Some do 




hJ 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 211 

call him Blackbeard, but he don't make trouble if 
he's handled right." 

" They said he was down around the Indies, after 
Spanish ships," said Antony. 

" He's been in a good many places," said the 
other. " Spanish galleys pay well, but trade's 
trade, wherever you find it." 

This Nick was a pleasant fellow, with nothing 
piratical-looking about him, unless you considered 
the skull and crossbones tattooed on his right fore- 
arm as a sign of his trade. He smiled in a very 
friendly fashion. " We've got a little matter on 
hand now that brings us up to Charles Town. 
Some of the crew's sick, and we want drugs and 
other things for 'em." He chuckled, as though the 
notion was amusing. " Pirates get sick just like 
other folks sometimes," he added. He pointed to 
the beach ahead of him. " Row us up there, Tony." 

There was nothing for Antony to do but obey, and 
somewhat assured by the mild manner of Nick, he 
pulled at his oars until the boat grounded in shallow 
water. "Don't mind a little wetting, do ye?" said 
Nick, stepping over the side. Antony followed, and 
they drew the boat high and dry on the shore. 
" Come along," said Nick, and he turned to lead 
the way. 

Men were working on a couple of overturned 
skiffs, men were lounging about doing nothing, men 
who looked nowise different from the fellows Antony 
saw in his own town. They paid no particular at- 



212 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

tention to him, and Nick led him along the shore 
through the woods that covered the headland, and 
out on the other side. Here was a snug harbor, 
with a good-sized ship at anchor, men on the shore 
and more men on the ship's deck. 

Nick shoved a small boat into the water, motioned 
to Antony to climb in, and with a few strokes brought 
them to the ship's side. He made the boat fast, and 
climbed a short rope-ladder to the deck. " Don't 
be scared," he muttered ; " he don't eat boys." He 
led the way to where a stocky man with a heavy 
black beard sat in a chair smoking a long pipe. 

" Here's a lad," said Nick, nodding to the chief, 
" we picked up as he was rowing down along the 
coast from Charles Town. He wanted a taste of 
salt air, and something better to do than what he'd 
been doing. And we didn't want him to go back 
home and tell what he'd seen down here." 

Blackbeard was certainly black, and there was a 
scar on one side of his face that didn't add to the 
beauty of his appearance, but he wasn't ferocious- 
looking, not as fierce in fact as several men Antony 
knew at home. He puffed at his pipe a minute be- 
fore he spoke. 

" We're going up to the town to-morrow morning," 
he said. " What's the talk about us there ? " 

"They thought you were chasing Spanish ships 
from Cuba and St. Augustine," answered Antony, 
"and I think they were pretty glad you were 
doing it." 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 213 

" They were, eh ? " snorted Blackbeard. '* That's 
always the way of it 1 Fight the enemy and you're 
a hero, but don't for the love of Heaven come near 
us. Smooth-faced rascals all 1 Keep an eye on 
him, Nick," and he jerked his head to show that 
the audience was over. 

" Not so terrible, was he ? " said Nick, as they 
went aft. " Now I'll show you some folks you 
know." They came to the window of the cabin, 
and he indicated that he wanted Antony to look 
inside. Half a dozen men and a couple of small 
boys were in the cabin, a most disconsolate-looking 
lot. To his great surprise Antony recognized the 
nearest as Mr. Samuel Wragg, a prominent mer- 
chant of Charles Town. The faces of all the others 
were familiar to him. " What's Mr. Wragg doing 
there?" he demanded. " He isn't a pirate, too?" 

" No, he's no pirate," chuckled Nick. "He's what 
you might call a hostage. You see, all that merry- 
looking crowd sailed from your town a few days 
ago, bound for England, but we met their ship when 
she reached the bar and we asked 'em to come on 
board us. Thought we might be able to accommo- 
date 'em better, you see. We overhauled eight ships 
within a week out there, and that's pretty good busi- 
ness, better than what we've done with your Spanish 
Dons lately. But there's no denying the Dons do 
carry the richer cargoes." 

"And what are you going to do with them?" 
asked Antony. 



214 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

" That's for old Teach, the chief there, to make 
out. I've a notion your friend Mr. Wragg and the 
others in there are going to help us get that store 
of drugs and supplies I was telling you of. Let's be 
going ashore. I don't want those mates of mine to 
eat all the fresh fish before we get back to 'em." 

Blackbeard's men — pirates and desperadoes though 
they were — seemed no rougher to Antony than any 
other seafaring men he had met at Charles Town. 
They carried more pistols and knives perhaps than 
such men, but though he listened eagerly he heard 
no strange ear-splitting oaths nor frightening tales 
of evil deeds they had committed. Nick looked 
after him almost like an older brother, saw that he 
had plenty to eat, helped him gather up wood for the 
fire they lighted on the shore after supper. There 
were a number of these small fires, each with a 
group of swarthy-faced men round it. As Big Bill, 
the man who had first hailed Antony and caught the 
gunwale of his boat, explained, " Blackbeard's men 
were glad to stretch their legs ashore whenever they 
got the chance." 

Their pipes lighted, the pirates sat about the camp- 
fires as the moon flooded the sea with sparkling 
silver. Nick told Antony how he had run away 
from his English home in Devon when he was a 
boy, and had shipped on board a merchantman out 
of Bristol. He had followed the sea year in, year out, 
until one day the captain of his ship had suddenly 
given up being a peaceful merchantman and had 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 215 

begun to hold up and rob any well-laden vessels he 
happened to meet. There was more profit in such a 
life, he said, and a great deal more excitement. Then 
he went on to tell Antony that many great sea-cap- 
tains had really been pirates, and that both the 
people in England and the American colonists really 
liked the pirates as long as they preyed on Spanish 
commerce and the ships of enemies. King Charles 
the Second of England, he said, though he pre- 
tended to frown on piracy, had actually made Mor- 
gan, the greatest pirate of them all, a knight, and 
appointed him governor of his island of Jamaica. 
" In most seaport towns," said Nick, " the townsfolk 
are glad enough to have us walk their streets, spend 
our Mexican doubloons, and sell them the silks and 
wine we bring in, without asking any questions about 
where we got 'em. We're as good as any other 
traders then ; maybe better, because we don't haggle 
so over a bargain. But when we hold up one o' 
their own precious ships they sing a song about us 
from t'other side their mouths." 

So he talked on, boastfully enough, about the 
doings of the sea-rovers ; but the boy, listening in- 
tently, thought that every now and then it sounded 
as if the dark man were making excuses for himself 
and his mates. 

The fires burned down, and most of the men 
hunted soft beds under the forest trees. The sum- 
mer night was warm, and the air was fresher here 
than in the close bunks on the ship. Big Bill and 



2i6 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Nick and Antony found a comfortable place for 
themselves. " You might tal^e it into your head to 
run away," said Nick, '* but Big Bill and I always 
sleep with one eye open, and there's a couple of men 
by the boats that'll see anything stirring, and there's 
a big marsh through the woods, so you'll do better 
to stay where you be. And if they should catch you 
trying to take French leave, I'm afraid they'd put 
you in that stuffy cabin along with your friend Mr. 
Wragg and the others. So my advice to ye is, get 
a good night's sleep." 

Antony took the advice so far as lying still went, 
though it was not nearly so easy to fall asleep. He 
watched the moon through the tree-tops, he listened 
to the lapping of the water on the shore, and he 
thought how strange it was that he should actually 
be a prisoner of the pirates. He thought of his 
father and mother and hoped they weren't worried 
about him ; he had stayed away from home over- 
night before, camping out in the woods, and prob- 
ably they wouldn't begin to worry about him until 
next day. Then he fell asleep, and when he woke 
the sun was rising over the water, and the woods 
were full of the early morning songs of birds. 

" Yeo ho for a swim!" cried Nick, jumping up. 
He and Antony plunged into the water, swam for 
half an hour, came out and lay in the sun, drying off, 
put on their clothes, and went on board the ship, 
where, in the galley, they found the cooks had 
breakfast ready. 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 217 

Soon afterward there was work to be done pre- 
paratory to weighing anchor. The small boats 
were brought on board, the crew set the sails, orders 
rang from bow to stern. Blackbeard was no longer 
a quiet man smoking a pipe in a chair. He was 
very alert and active, overseeing everything, and 
when he snapped out a word, or even jerked his 
thumb this way or that, men jumped to do his bid- 
ding. The anchor was hoisted aboard, the ship 
slowly turned from her harbor and sought the 
channel. 

With a fresh favoring wind the ship set in toward 
Charles Town. Antony, on the forward deck with 
Nick, watched the shore-line until the bright roofs 
of the little settlement began to stand out from the 
green and blue. Farther and farther on Blackbeard 
sailed until they were in full view of the town. 
Then he called a half-dozen men by name, among 
them Nick, and gave them his orders. " Man the 
long-boat," said he, " and row ashore. Send this 
note to the governor. It's a list of drugs I want for 
my crew. And tell the governor and Council that 
if the drugs don't come back to me in three hours 
I'll send another boat ashore with the heads of 
Samuel Wragg and his son and a dozen other men 
of Charles Town. Their heads or the drugs ! Look 
to the priming of your pistols." Blackbeard was a 
man of few words, but every word he spoke told. 

As the others swung the long-boat overboard Nick 
stepped up to the chief. " I'll take the boy along," 



2i8 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

said he. " He might help us ashore, as he knows the 
people there." Blackbeard nodded. 

An idea occurred to Antony, and whispering to 
Nick, he darted to the galley. He found a scrap of 
paper there, and scrawled a couple of lines to his 
lather, saying he was well, and begging his parents 
not to worry about him. As he ran back by the 
cabin he couldn't help glancing in at the window, 
and saw Samuel Wragg and the other prisoners 
whispering together, their frightened faces seeming 
to show that they had heard what was in the wind, 
and knew that Blackbeard meant to have their heads 
in case their friends in Charles Town should refuse 
to let him have the drugs he wanted. 

The long-boat was now manned and floating 
lightly on the bay. At a word from Nick, Antony 
swung himself over the side of the ship by a rope 
and dropped into the boat. "You steer us," said 
Nick, "and mind you don't get us into any trouble, 
or overboard you go as sure as my name's Nicholas 
Carter." 

The harbor was smooth as glass and the long-boat, 
pulled by its lusty crew, shot along rapidly. Nick 
was pulling the stroke oar, and presently Antony, 
who sat opposite him, took the little note he had 
written from his pocket. " If you go ashore, won't 
you give this paper to somebody?" he begged. 
" My father's name's on the outside, and everybody 
knows him. It'll make his mind easier about me." 

Nick bobbed his head. " Slip it into my pocket," 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 219 

he murmured, nodding to where his jacket lay on 
the bottom of the boat. 

The town was right before them now, its quays 
busy with the usual morning life of the water-front. 
To Antony, however, it seemed that more men and 
boys than usual were standing there, some watching 
the long-boat, and others looking past her at the 
big ship far down the bay. He saw faces he knew, 
he saw men staring at him wonderingly, he even 
felt rather proud at the strange position he had so 
unexpectedly fallen into. 

*' Easy now, mates," sang out Nick, looking over 
his shoulder at the near water-front. He gave a few 
orders, and the long-boat swung gently up to an 
empty float, and he and the man next to him, slip- 
ping on their jackets and making sure that their 
pistols slid easily from their belts, stepped lightly to 
the float. 

By now a large crowd had gathered on the shore, 
all staring at the strangers. Nick and his fellow- 
pirate, cool as cucumbers, walked up the plank that 
led from the float to the dock. There Nick made a 
little mocking bow to the men and boys of Charles 
Town. "Who's governor here?" he demanded, 
with the assurance of an envoy from some mighty 
state. 

Several voices answered, " Robert Johnson is the 
governor." 

Nick took from an inner pocket the paper Black- 
beard had given him. " One of you take this mes- 



220 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

sage to Governor Robert Johnson. It comes from 
Captain Teach, sometimes known as Captain Black- 
beard. He entertains certain merchants of your town 
on board his ship, Mr. Samuel Wragg and others. 
And should any of you harm me or my mates while 
we wait for the governor's answer Captain Teach 
will feel obliged, much to his regret, to do the same 
to your worthy townsmen on his ship." 

There were murmurs and exclamations from the 
crowd, and whispers of " It's Blackbeard I " " It's 
the pirates 1 " and the like. 

As no one stepped forward Nick now pointed to a 
man in a blue coat who stood fronting him. " Take 
this message," he said, and spoke so commandingly 
that the man stepped forward and took it. Then he 
beckoned a boy to him and gave him Antony's 
note. " For Mr. Jonas Evans," he said. " Make 
sure he gets it." After that he sat down on a bale 
of cotton, pulled out a pipe, filled it with tobacco, 
and lighted it. The other pirate did the same. 
The bright sun shone on the brace of pistols each 
man wore in his belt. 

The man in the blue coat hurried to Governor 
Johnson with the message from the pirate chief. 
The governor read the message, demanding certain 
drugs at once, on pain of Samuel Wragg and the 
other merchants of Charles Town losing their heads. 
The governor sent for the Council and read the mes- 
sage to them. They would all have liked to tear 
the message to shreds and go out at once to capture 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 221 

this insolent sea-robber, but there was danger that if 
they tried to do that their worthy fellow-citizens 
would instantly lose their heads. 

Meantime the news had spread through the town, 
and there was the greatest excitement. The people 
longed to get their hands on Blackbeard and pay 
him for this insult. But they dared not stir now ; 
they dared not even lay finger on the two insolent 
rascals who sat on the bales of cotton on the water- 
front, smiling at the crowd. The families and friends 
of Samuel Wragg and the other prisoners, all of 
whom were named in Blackbeard's message to the 
governor, hurried to the house where the Council 
was meeting, and demanded that the drugs should 
be sent out to Blackbeard at once. 

The governor and Council argued the matter up 
and down. They hated to yield to such a command, 
and yet it would be monstrous to sacrifice their 
friends for a few drugs. Then Governor Johnson 
made his decision. He reminded them that he 
had time and again urged the Proprietors and the 
Board of Trade to send out a frigate to protect the 
commerce of Charles Town from just such perils as 
this ; and added that it was his duty to protect the 
lives of all the citizens. He would send the drugs, 
and then the Council must see to it that such a situ- 
ation shouldn't occur again. 

All the medicines on Blackbeard's list were carried 
down to the float and put on board the long-boat 
under Nicholas Carter's supervision. " I thank you 



222 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

all in the name of Captain Teach," Nick said, smil- 
ing and bowing in his best manner. Among the 
crowd on shore Antony had caught the faces of his 
father and mother, and waved to them, and called 
out that he would soon be back. 

The long-boat left the shore amid angry mutter- 
ings from the people. The tide was low now, and 
presently Antony, by mischance, mistook the course 
of the channel, and ran the boat aground. He 
showed so plainly, however, that he hadn't meant to 
do it, that Nick forgave him, and said he wouldn't 
throw him overboard. It took some time for the 
crew to get the boat afloat again, and when they 
finally reached the ship they found Blackbeard in a 
terrible rage at the delay and almost on the point of 
beheading Mr. Wragg and the other prisoners. 

The sight of the drugs calmed his anger some- 
what, and he ordered his captives brought out on 
deck. There he had them searched, and took every- 
thing of value they had with them, among other 
things a large amount of gold from Mr, Wragg. 
Some of their clothes he took also, so that it was 
hard to say whether the poor merchants were shiv- 
ering more from fright or from cold. Then he had 
them rowed in the long-boat to a neighboring point 
of land, where they were left to make their way 
home as best they could. 

Antony had asked Nick if he couldn't be set on 
shore with the others, but Nick, drawing him away 
from the rest of the crew, had whispered, " Stay with 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 223 

me a day or two more. I'm going to leave the ship 
myself. I'm tired of this way of living, and I'd like 
to have a friend to speak a good word for me when 
I land. I'll see no harm comes to you, boy. I got 
that note to your father, and — one good turn de- 
serves another. We'll leave old Blackbeard soon." 

Antony liked the dark man. " All right," said he. 
" I think we can get into Charles Town without any 
one knowing who you are. I'll look out for you." 

" Much obliged to you, Tony," said Nick, with a 
grin. 

So when the pirate ship sailed out to sea again, 
Antony was still on board her. 

II 
Five days Antony stayed on board the pirate ship, 
while Blackbeard doctored the sick men of his crew 
with the medicines he had obtained in Charles 
Town. The boy was well treated, for it was under- 
stood that he was under Nick's protection, and 
moreover, although the pirates could show their 
teeth and snarl savagely enough in a fight, they were 
friendly and easy-going among themselves. It was 
a pleasant cruise for Antony, for the weather held 
good, and Nick taught him much about the han- 
dling of a ship. Then, after five days of sailing, 
Blackbeard anchored off one of the long sandy 
islands that dot that coast, and those of his men 
who were tired of their small quarters on the ship 
went ashore and spent the night there. Among 



224 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

them were Nick and Antony, and, as on that other 
night ashore, they made their beds at a little dis- 
tance from the others. 

Just before dawn Antony was waked by some one 
pulling his shoulder. It was Nick, who signaled to 
him that he should rise noiselessly and follow him. 
The boy obeyed, and the two went silently through 
the woods and came out on another beach as the 
sun was rising. They walked for some time, watch- 
ing the wonderful colors the sun was sending over 
sea and sky. Then said Nick, " We're far enough 
away from them now. They won't hunt for us ; 
they've more than enough crew, and old Teach ain't 
the man to bother his head about a couple of run- 
aways. Five minutes of curses, and he'll be up and 
away again, with never a thought of us. I'll beat 
you to the water, Tony," and Nick started to pull 
his shirt over his head. 

They swam as long as they wanted, and then 
they followed the shore, growing more and more 
hungry as they went along. *' There must be fish- 
ermen somewhere," said Nick. " A little farther 
south, and we'd have fruit for the taking ; but 
here" — he shrugged his shoulders — "nothing but 
a few berries that rattle around in one like peas in a 
pail." 

After an hour, however, they came to a fisher- 
man's shanty, and found the owner working with his 
nets and lines on the shore. He was a big man, 
with reddish hair and beard, and clothes that had 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 225 

been so often soaked in salt water that they 
had almost all the colors of the rainbow. "We'll 
work all day for food and drink," said Nick, grin- 
ning. 

The fisherman grinned in return. " Help your- 
selves," said he, waving his hand toward his shanty. 
" You're welcome to what you find ; I got my gold 
and silver safe hid away." 

They found dried fish and corn-meal cakes and 
water in an earthen jar. When they came out to 
the beach again they told the man their names, and 
learned in turn that his was Simeon Park. They 
went out with him in his sailing-smack, and fished 
all day, and when they came back they felt like 
old friends, as men do who spend a day together on 
the sea. 

There followed a week of fishing with Simeon, 
varied by mornings when they went hunting ducks 
and wild turkeys and geese with him over the 
marshes and the long flats that lay along the coast. 
Antony had never had a better time ; he liked both 
of his new friends, and, except for his father and 
mother, he was in no hurry to go back to Charles 
Town and work in the warehouse there. At the 
end of the week Simeon Park suggested that they 
should take the smack for a cruise, fishing and gun- 
ning as chance offered. So they put to sea again, 
this time in a much smaller vessel than Blackbeard's 
merchantman. 

They met with one small gale, but after that came 



226 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

favoring winds. Presently they found themselves 
near Charles Town harbor again. They camped on 
shore one night, and Antony told Nick that he must 
be heading for home shortly. 

Next morning the boy was waked by the big fish- 
erman, who pointed out to sea. Three big ships 
were standing off the coast, and even at that distance 
they could see that the "Jolly Roger" of a pirate, 
the skull and crossbones, flew from the masthead of 
the biggest vessel. Guns boomed across the water. 
" The two sloops are after the big fellow," exclaimed 
Simeon Park. " Let's put out in our boat, and have 
a look at the game." 

They put off in their smack, and with the skilful 
fisherman at the helm, stood off and on, tacked and 
ran before the wind, until they came to a point 
where they were out of shot and yet near enough to 
see all that was taking place. 

" I can read the names of the sloops," said Park, 
squinting across at their sterns; "one's called Sea 
Ny7nph and t'other the Henry, and they both hail 
from Charles Town." 

Nick chuckled. "That governor of yours," he 
said to Antony, " didn't lose much time. He's got 
two sloops of war now for certain, and he means to 
try a tussle with the rovers." He too squinted at 
the vessels. " I don't think she's Blackbeard's, how- 
somever. No, there's her name." And he spelled 
out the words Royal James. 

The two sloops, each mounting eight guns, had 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 227 

swept down on the pirate, evidently planning to 
catch her in a narrow strait formed by two spits of 
land. But the pirate ship, undaunted, had sought 
to sail past the sloops, and by her greater speed to 
gain the open sea. Then the two sloops bore in 
close, and before the Royal James knew what she 
was about she had sailed out of the channel and was 
stuck fast on a shoal of sand. Then the Henry, 
too, grounded in shoal water, and some distance 
further, her mate, the Sea Nymph. 

This was a pretty situation, all three ships aground, 
and only the little fishing-smack able to sail about as 
she liked. " Lucky we don't draw more 'n a couple 
of feet of water," said Simeon Park, at the helm. " If 
we only had a gun of our own aboard we could hop 
about and pepper first one, then t'other." 

" And have one good round shot send us to the 
bottom as easy as a man crushes a pesky mosquito," 
observed Nick. " No, thankee. If it's all the same 
to you I'd rather keep out of gun-fire of both sides to 
this little controversy," 

Antony, crouched on the small deck forward, was 
too busy watching what was going on to consider 
the likelihood of his boat going aground. 

The tide was at the ebb, and there was no likeli- 
hood of any of tne three fighting-ships getting of? 
the shoals for hours. The Royal James and the 
Henry had listed the same way, and now lay almost 
in line with each other, so that the hull of the pirate 
ship was turned directly toward the Charles Town 



228 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

sloop, while the deck of the latter was in full view 
of the pirate, and only a pistol-shot away. 

" They're more like two forts now than ships," 
said Nick. " There she goes ! " 

Antony was yelling. The Henry had opened fire 
on the pirate ship. But instandy the Royal James 
returned the fire with a broadside, which, on account 
of its position, raked the open deck of the Henry. 

" Those lads have got grit to stick to their guns 1" 
cried Park, keeping his smack bobbing on the waves 
at a safe distance. " They're using their muskets, 
too I " Antony cheered every time shots blazed 
from the Henry and held his breath to see what 
damage the answering fire of the pirate did to his 
own townsmen. 

The other Charles Town sloop, the Sea Nymph, 
was aground too far down-stream to be of any help 
to her mate. Her crew, like the crew of three in the 
fishing-smack, could only watch from a distance, 
and cheer as the battle was waged back and forth. 

And waged back and forth it was for a long time, 
while men were shot down at the guns, and parts of 
each ship shot away, and the sea scattered with 
wreckage, and the air filled with smoke and the 
heavy, acrid odor of powder. " The pirate's getting 
the best of it," shouted Simeon Park, after some 
time of fighting. It looked that way ; her crew were 
yelling exultantly, and her captain had called to the 
sloop, demanding that the latter's crew haul down 
their flag in surrender. 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 229 

At length, however, the tide began to turn, and 
with it the chance of victory for the pirates. The 
Henry floated from the shoal first, and her captain 
prepared to grapple with his enemy and board her. 
Then the Sea Nymph floated, and headed up to aid 
her consort. The pirate chief, seeing the chances 
now two to one against him, yelled to his crew to 
fight harder than ever ; and the Royal James blazed 
again and again with broadsides, making a desper- 
ate stand, like a wild animal brought to bay. The 
rail of the Henry was carried overboard, and to the 
three in the fishing-smack it looked as if some of the 
crew had gone over with it. 

Antony forgot the sea-fight ; he was calling 
directions to Park to steer his boat so as to near 
the wreckage. He saw a man with his arm thrown 
over a piece of the railing, and he called encourage- 
ment to him. The fisherman sent his boat dashing 
ahead, and the man in the water, hearing Antony's 
voice, tried to swim in his direction. " Easy now I " 
cried the boy, and the boat swept up to the wreck- 
age, and lay there, with loosely flapping sail, while 
Antony and Nick leaned far over her side and drew 
the man on board. They laid him on the deck, 
while Park, at the tiller, brought his boat about and 
scurried away from the line of fire. 

The man was not badly hurt ; he had a flesh wound 
in one shoulder, and was dazed from having been 
flung into the sea with the railing. " Never mind 
me," he said. " Look for others." The three looked 



230 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

over the water, but though they saw plenty of float- 
ing wreckage, they spied no other men. 

" She's striking her flag ! " cried Park. They all 
looked at the fighting ships, and saw that the pirate 
had hauled down his flag, and heard the cheers of 
victory from the Henry and the Sea Nymph. Antony 
jumped up and down and yelled with the best of 
them ; the men of Charles Town were having their 
revenge on the sea-rovers who had so openly flouted 
them a short time before. 

"That's the end of Blackbeard ! " cried the 
wounded man, sitting up and watching the crews 
of the two sloops as they prepared to board the 
other vessel. 

Nick shook his head. " Not Blackbeard," he said. 
" Whoever that rover may be, he's not old Teach, I 
know." 

The gun-smoke drifted away across the water, 
and Park, at Nick's suggestion, headed his boat for 
shore. The dark man had no wish to sail up to the 
sloops from Charles Town just then, thinking it not 
unlikely that some of the crew might remember him 
as Blackbeard's agent at the Charles Town dock. 
So they skirted the shore till they reached a good 
landing-place. There they camped, binding the 
sailor's wounded shoulder as best they could, cook- 
ing dinner, for they were all ravenously hungry, and 
resting on the sand. There the sailor, Peter Duval, 
told them how angry Governor Johnson and the 
men of Charles Town had been when Blackbeard 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 231 

had sailed away with his medicines, leaving Samuel 
Wragg and the others, plundered and almost 
stripped, to find their way home ; and how Colonel 
Rhett had sworn that with two sloops he would rid 
the sea of the pirate, and had sailed forth to do it. 
In return Antony told the sailor who he was and 
they planned that in a day or two they would return 
home. " And Nick there is going back with me," 
added Antony, nodding toward the dark young 
fellow who sat on the beach with them. 

Now Duval had heard how Blackbeard or some 
of his men had kidnapped the son of Jonas Evans, 
and he had his own suspicions concerning what 
manner of man this dark-haired fellow might be. 
Yet he could not help liking the man, who had 
certainly helped to do him a good turn ; and even 
if he had been a pirate there was no reason why he 
shouldn't have changed his mind about that way of 
living and have decided to become an honest citizen. 
So he nodded his head approvingly, and said, "That's 
good. The old town needs some likely-looking men," 
and shifted about so that the warm sand made a 
more comfortable pillow for his wounded shoulder. 

Next day they sailed back to Simeon Park's cabin, 
and there Nick discovered a pair of shears and cut 
his black mustache and cropped his hair close, so 
that he looked more like one of the English Round- 
heads than he did like a sea-rover. " Now, mates," 
said he to Antony and Duval, "I'm a wandering 
trader you happened to meet in the woods. Tony 



232 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

stole away from Blackbeard's men one night, and 
found Park's cabin here. Then I came along, and a 
day or two later the three of us picked Duval out of 
the sea. What d'ye say to that, mates ?" 

" I say," said Duval, winking, " that with the lad 
and me to speak up for you, they'll be glad to have 
you in Charles Town, whatever you may be." He 
added sagely, " Folks aren't over particular in the 
colonies about your granddaddy. Many of 'em 
came over from the old country without questions 
asked as to why they came. No, sir ; if a man deals 
square by us, we deal square by him." 

The following afternoon Simeon Park's boat tacked 
across the bay, and zigzagged up to the Charles Town 
docks. At sundown his three passengers landed, 
and bade him a hearty farewell. Few people were 
about, and none, as it chanced, who knew them, so 
that the three walked straightway up the street 
along the harbor, Nick in the middle, looking as 
innocent as if he had never seen the town before. 

The Evans family lived in a small frame house on 
Meeting Street, and husband and wife were just 
sitting down to supper when there came a knock at 
the street door. Jonas Evans opened the door, and 
his son sprang in and caught him around the 
shoulders. " Here I am, dad ! " he cried. " Safe 
and sound again ! " After that bear-like squeeze he 
rushed to his mother, and gave her the same greet- 
ing, while she exclaimed, and kissed him again and 
again, and called him all her pet names. 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 233 

"And I've brought a friend home with me, 
Nicholas Carter," said Antony. *' I met him along 
the coast, and he's been very good to me, so you 
must be good to him. He's a splendid fellow," he 
added loyally. " And he and a fisherman and I 
pulled Peter Duval out of the water after the big sea- 
light the other day." 

"Any friend of my boy's is my friend," said Mr. 
Evans, and he caught Nick by the hand and drew him 
into the house. Then he shook hands with Duval, 
and so did Mrs. Evans, almost crying in her delight 
at having her son home again, and they both urged 
the sailor to stay and have supper with them, but he 
said that now that he had seen his two mates safely 
home he must dash away to his own family. 

Antony and Nick sat at the supper-table and ate 
their fill while Jonas Evans told them the news. 
Colonel Rhett had sailed out from Charles Town 
with his two sloops and after a great battle had 
captured the pirate ship. He thought he had 
captured Blackbeard, but found he was mistaken. 
The pirate had turned out to be a man named Stede 
Bonnet, a man who came of a good family and owned 
some property, a gentleman one might say, a man 
who had been a major in the army, and a worthy 
citizen of Bridgetown. Once he had repented of 
his pirate's life, and taken the King's pardon, but he 
had gone back to his lawless trade, and been one of 
the fiercest of his kind. No one in Charles Town 
could understand why such a man had a liking for 



234 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

such a business. Mr. Evans supposed that it must 
be because of the wild adventures that went with the 
career of the sea-rovers. Here Antony caught a 
smile on Nick's face, and knew that his friend was 
thinking there were many reasons why respectable 
fellows turned outlaws. Some drifted into it, as 
Nick had done as a boy, and found it easier to stay 
in than to leave. 

Colonel Rhett, Jonas Evans added, had returned 
to Charles Town with the Royal James as a prize, 
and with Stede Bonnet and thirty of his crew in irons. 
Eighteen of the men of Carolina had been killed in 
the sea-fight, and many more badly wounded. 

Then, when he could eat no more, Antony told his 
story. " And I hope, dad," he finished, " that you 
can find a place for Nick in the warehouse. And on 
Sundays," he added to his friend, " we'll get out on 
the water, and go gunning and fishing." 

" Any honest work," said Nick, with his familiar 
smile, " till I can get my bearings, and see what I'm 
best fitted for," He thought he might endure the 
warehouse for a week or so, but already he felt the 
call to the old free life of the rover, 

Jonas Evans agreed to try to find a place for his 
son's friend. They talked till the tallow dips sput- 
tered and went out, and then Nick and Antony 
climbed to their two bedrooms up under the eaves. 
" It's the first time I've slept in a house for years, 
Tony," said Nick. " I don't know how I'll like it." 

He found that he liked it very well, and the ex- 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 235 

pirate slept comfortably under the roof of the re- 
spectable Charles Town merchant. 

Ill 

Jonas Evans was as good as his word, and when 
Antony went to work in the warehouse Nick was 
given a place there too. The dark-haired man 
had some pieces of silver in his pocket, and he 
bought himself quiet-colored clothes and a broad- 
brimmed hat, so that he looked very much like other 
men in the town ; but his black eyes would shine and 
his clean-shaven lips curl in amusement as they had 
done when Antony first rowed his boat almost into 
his arms. However, the people of Charles Town 
were accustomed to having all sorts of men settle 
among them, as Peter Duval had said, and they 
made no inquiries as to what a man had done before 
he arrived there, but only considered how he be- 
haved now, and so they took it for granted that 
Nicholas Carter was quite respectable enough, and 
didn't trouble themselves about his past. And who 
would be likely to think that the man with the long 
black hair and mustache who had landed from 
Blackbeard's small-boat and insolently ordered the 
governor to furnish him with drugs was the same 
man as this young fellow, who was polite and 
friendly with every one? 

The room in the warehouse where Antony and 
Nick worked had a window that looked out across 
the water, and often the boy saw his friend gazing 



236 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

at the dancing waves with longing eyes. But when 
Nick would catch Antony looking at him he would 
grin and shake his head, and then try to appear 
very much absorbed in the job he had on hand. At 
such times the boy, who had only tasted that free 
life of sea and shore for a few days, could appreciate 
the feelings of the man who had known that life for 
years. 

Meantime Charles Town had been very busy deal- 
ing with the pirates it had captured. There was no 
jail in the town, so most of the crew of the Royal 
James had been locked up in the watch house, while 
their leader, Stede Bonnet, and two of his men had 
been given in charge of the marshal to keep under 
close guard in his own house. After some time the 
crew were put on trial before Chief Justice Trott, 
and the attorney-general read to the court and jury 
a list of thirty-eight ships that Bonnet and Teach 
had captured in the last six months. The prisoners 
had no lawyers to defend them, but two very able 
lawyers to attack them, and the Chief Justice and 
the other judges, as well as the jury, were convinced 
that the crew of the Royal James had beyond ques- 
tion been guilty of piracy. Four, however, were 
freed of the charge, while the rest were sentenced 
to be hung, the customary punishment for pirates. 

Stede Bonnet, their captain, was not put on trial. 
The guards at the marshal's house had been very 
careless, and Bonnet had made friends with some 
men in the town. With the help of these friends he 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 237 

had disguised himself as a woman, and with one of 
his mates had escaped in a boat with an Indian and 
a negro. People said that his plan was to reach the 
ships of another pirate named Moody, who had ap- 
peared off the bar of the harbor a few days before, 
with a ship of fifty guns, and two smaller ships, like- 
wise armed, that he had captured on their way from 
New England to Charles Town. 

From the warehouse window Antony and Nick 
saw the sails of this insolent new sea-rover, who 
dared stand so close inshore, waiting to pounce on 
any boats that might put out from the town. 

The governor had already sent word to England, 
asking for aid in his warfare with the buccaneers, 
but none came from England. So he told the Coun- 
cil that they must act for themselves, and they or- 
dered the best ships in port impressed into service 
and armed. Colonel Rhett, the man who had cap- 
tured Bonnet, was asked to take command of this 
new fleet, but he declined, owing to some difBculty 
he had had with Governor Johnson. Thereupon 
the governor himself declared he would be the ad- 
miral, to the great delight of Charles Town. Four 
ships, one of them being the captured Royal James, 
were armed with cannon, and a call was sent out for 
volunteers. 

Nick and Antony, going home one night, read 
the governor's call posted on a wall. They went 
down to the harbor and saw the big ships ready to 
sail. " This looks like a chance to set myself right 



238 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

again," said Nick, slowly. " I wouldn't fight my 
old mates or Blackbeard ; but I don't see any reason 
why I shouldn't help to clear the sea of Moody or 
any other rascal. I'm going to volunteer." 

" The governor might want a boy on board," said 
Antony. " There are lots of things I can do about 
a ship." 

That night he asked his father to let him volun- 
teer, and though Jonas Evans and his wife were very 
loath to lose their son again, he finally won their 
permission. Their friends and neighbors were vol- 
unteering ; there was no good reason why they 
should refuse to do their share. 

Next day three hundred men and boys volunteered 
for the little navy of Charles Town. Then word 
came that Stede Bonnet and his companions when 
they had reached the bar had found that Moody 
was cruising northward that day, and so had put 
back and taken refuge on Sullivan's Island. Colonel 
Rhett, who was very angry at the escape of his 
captive, volunteered to lead a party to capture 
Bonnet again. A small party went in search, hunt- 
ing the fugitives. The sand-hills, covered with a 
thick growth of stunted live-oaks and myrtles, of- 
fered splendid protection, and the hunt was difficult, 
but at last the men were sighted, shots were fired. 
Bonnet's comrade was killed, and the pirate chief 
himself was taken prisoner, and once more brought 
back to Charles Town by Colonel Rhett. 

While this search and capture were going on 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 239 

Antony and Nick were busy on Governor Johnson's 
flag-ship, making ready to put to sea. Lookouts 
caught sight of the pirate Moody's vessels return- 
ing, sailing closer and closer in, actually coming 
inside the bar, as though they meant to attack the 
town itself. But inside the bar they stopped, and 
casting anchor, quietly rode there, while the sunset 
colored their sails, and men and women of Charles 
Town, on the quays and from the roofs and windows 
of their houses, watched them and wondered what 
might be the pirate's plans. 

That night Governor Johnson, from his flag-ship, 
gave the order to the other ships of his small fleet 
to follow him, and they all slipped their moorings 
and stole down the harbor to the fort, and waited 
there. 

At dawn next day the four ships from Charles 
Town, with their guns under cover and no signs of 
war about their decks, crossed the bar, heading 
toward the sea. The pirate supposed them to be 
peaceful merchantmen, and let them sail past him, 
and then had his ships close in on their track, in 
order to cut off their retreat. What he had often 
done before with merchantmen he did now ; he ran 
up the black flag and called to the ships to surrender. 

But Governor Johnson had planned to get his 
enemy into just this position. The pirate fleet now 
lay between his own ships and the town. He hoisted 
the royal ensign of England, threw open his ports, 
unmasked his guns, and poured a broadside of shot 



240 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

into the nearest pirate ship. Antony, from the deck 
of the flag-ship, could see the sudden surprise and 
alarm on the faces of the pirate crew. 

The pirate chief was a clever skipper, however. 
By wonderful navigating he sailed his ship straight 
for the open sea, and actually managed to get past 
Governor Johnson. The latter followed in swift 
pursuit, and as the ships were now somewhat scat- 
tered, the flag-ship signaled the Sea Nymph and the 
Royal James to look out for the pirate sloop. 

Soon these ships and the sloop were close to- 
gether, yard-arm to yard-arm, and a desperate fight 
under way. The men of Charles Town fought well ; 
they drove the pirates from their guns, they swarmed 
aboard the pirate ship, and killed the pirates who 
resisted them. Most of the pirates fought to the 
last inch of deck-room, refusing to surrender. A 
few took refuge in the hold, and threw up their 
hands when the enemy surrounded them. Then 
the crews of the Sea Nymph and the Royal Ja^nes 
sailed the captured sloop back to the harbor, where 
the men and women who had been listening to the 
guns cheered wildly. 

In the meantime the governor's flag-ship was 
chasing the pirate flag-ship, Antony and another 
boy stood near Johnson, ready to run his errands 
whenever needed ; Nick was of the crew that manned 
one of the forward cannon. It was a long stern 
chase, but Johnson slowly drew up on the other. 
The buccaneers threw their small boats and even 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 241 

their guns overboard in an attempt to lighten their 
ship, but the ship from Charles Town was the faster, 
and at length overhauled the rover. A few broad- 
sides of shot, and the black flag came fluttering 
down from the masthead ; the governor and part of 
his crew went on board and the pirates surrendered. 

Antony, dogging the governor's steps, was by him 
when the hatches were lifted ; to his great astonish- 
ment he saw that the hold was filled with frightened 
women. The governor turned to the captured rover 
captain. " What does this mean ? " he demanded, 
pointing to the women, who were now climbing to 
the deck with the help of the Charles Town crew. 

'• When we captured this ship," said the rover, 
" we found she was the Eagle, bound from England 
to Virginia, carrying convicts and indentured serv- 
ants. We'd have set them ashore at the first good 
chance." 

It was true. There were thirty-six women on 
board, sailing from England to find husbands and 
homes in the new world. The pirates had changed 
the name of the ship, and taken her for their own use, 
but had had no chance to land the women safely. 

The governor had another surprise that day. He 
found that the captain of this fleet of pirates was not 
Moody, as all Charles Town had supposed, but an 
even more dreaded buccaneer, Richard Worley. 
This Richard Worley had been on board the sloop, 
and had been killed in the fierce fighting on her 
deck that morning. 



242 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Antony and Nick were of the crew that brought 
the captured Eagle, with her cargo of women, back 
to shore. There kind-hearted people of Charles 
Town took care of the frightened passengers. In the 
town that night there was great rejoicing over the 
defeat of two of the rovers who infested that part of 
the seas, Stede Bonnet and Richard Worley. It 
was true that Blackbeard and Moody were still at 
large, but it might well be that the fate of their fel- 
lows would prove a warning to them that the peo- 
ple of Charles Town meant business. Governor 
Johnson and his crews went back to their regular 
business, and the town grew quiet again. 

Neither Moody nor Blackbeard again troubled the 
good people there. Weeks later it was learned that 
Moody had heard how Charles Town was prepared 
for him, and that he had gone to Jamaica, and there 
taken the " King's pardon," which was granted to all 
pirates who would give up their lawless trade before 
the following first of January. Afterward word 
came that Blackbeard had been captured by a fleet 
sent out by Governor Spotswood of Virginia, and 
commanded by officers of the Royal British Navy. 

Stede Bonnet's crew had already been tried and 
found guilty of piracy. The judges had now to con- 
sider the case of that buccaneer chief himself. Every 
one in Charles Town knew that he had sailed the 
seas time and again with the "Jolly Roger" at his 
masthead, but he was a man of very attractive ap- 
pearance and manners, and many of the good pec- 



PIRATES OF CHARLES TOWN HARBOR 243 

pie of the town thought that he really meant to re- 
pent and lead a better life. The judges and jury, 
however, with Bonnet's past record before them, saw 
only the plain duty of dealing with him as they had 
already dealt with his crew. Then Colonel Rhett, 
the gallant soldier who had twice captured Bonnet, 
came forward and offered to take the pirate person- 
ally to London, and ask the king to pardon him. 
The governor felt that he could not consent to this 
request ; he knew how Bonnet had taken the oath of 
repentance once before, and had immediately run 
up the " Jolly Roger " on his ship at the first chance 
he found. Bonnet was a pirate, caught in the very 
act. The law was very clear. So Bonnet was 
hanged, as were the forty other prisoners who had 
been found guilty. 

Nick stayed with Antony at Mr. Evans's ware- 
house until the excitement of the war with the pirates 
had blown over. He and Antony were almost in- 
separable, and the people who met the slim, dark 
fellow liked him for his good-nature and ready smile. 
Whenever they found the chance Antony and he 
went sailing or hunting or fishing. 

" Tony," he said one day as they sailed back from 
fishing, " I'm going to leave the warehouse. No, 
don't look put out ; I'm not going back to my old 
way of living. Besides, there aren't any of the ro- 
vers left for me to join. But I was made for the open 
air, and the work there in the shop can't hold me. 
The governor wants soldiers for his province of 



244 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

South Carolina, and I've a notion the life of a soldier 
would suit me. I take naturally to swords and 
pistols." 

Antony smiled. " You'll make a good one, Nick. 
I shouldn't wonder if you got to be a general. Yes, 
you'll like it better. But Dad and I'll hate to have 
you go." 

So, a few days later, Nicholas Carter, who had 
once been one of Blackbeard's crew, offered his serv- 
ices to Governor Johnson and became a soldier in 
the small army of the province. He did well, and 
rose to be a colonel, and one of the most popular 
men of Charles Town. But sometimes, when he 
and Antony Evans were alone together, Colonel 
Nicholas Carter would wink and say, " Remember 
the day when you and I sailed away on Blackbeard's 
ship ? Yeo ho, for the life of a pirate I " 

" The day you kidnapped me, you mean," Antony 
would remind him. " That was a wonderful holi- 
day, to be sure ! " 

For respectable men turned pirates, and pirates 
reformed and became worthy citizens and soldiers, 
in the days before the little settlement of Charles 
Town became the city of Charleston in one of the 
thirteen states of the American Union. 



IX 

THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 

{Georgia, 1J32) 

I 

There was a man in England in the first half of 
the eighteenth century who became so impressed 
by the misfortunes of men thrown into prison for 
debt that he resolved to do what he could to help 
them. The man was James Oglethorpe, and the re- 
sult of his resolve was the founding of the colony of 
Georgia, which in time became one of the original 
thirteen colonies of the United States. 

To owe money was regarded as a most serious 
crime in England in those days, at least four thou- 
sand men were sent to prison every year for inabil- 
ity to pay their debts, and many of these debtors 
spent their lives in jail, since it was next to impos- 
sible for them to secure any money while they were 
imprisoned. The prisons, moreover, were vile dens 
of pestilence, where smallpox often raged, jailers 
treated their prisoners barbarously, and the man 
who had stolen a few shillings was kept in the same 
pen with the worst of pirates and murderers. A man 
named Castell, an architect and writer, was arrested 



246 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

for debt, and thrown into a prison where smallpox 
was rife. In spite of his protests he was kept there, 
and caught the disease and died. James Oglethorpe 
knew Castell, and the story of the architect's impris- 
onment roused Oglethorpe to action in aid of others 
who might be similarly treated. 

Oglethorpe was a man of influence in England. 
He had studied at Oxford, served in the army, and 
was a member of Parliament. He had a committee 
appointed to investigate the prisons, and, acting as 
its chairman, he unearthed so many cases of bar- 
barities and showed that so many of the jailers were 
inhuman wretches that Parliament interfered and 
righted at least a few of the most crying wrongs. 
But his plans went farther than that ; he wanted to 
give men who had the misfortune to be in debt a 
chance to start new lives, not simply to stay in jail 
with no chance to better their condition, and to this 
end he looked across the ocean to the great, unsettled 
continent of America, and planned his new home for 
debtors there. 

Oglethorpe succeeded in interesting some of the 
most prominent men of England in his plan, and on 
June 9, 1732, King George II granted them a charter 
for a province to be called Georgia, which was to 
consist of the country between the Savannah and 
the Altamaha Rivers and to extend from the head- 
springs of these rivers due west to the Pacific Ocean. 
The seal of the patrons of the new province bore on 
one side a group of silkworms at work, with the 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 247 

motto, " No7i sibi, sed aliis,'' — *' Not for themselves, 
but for others," — showing the purpose of the patrons, 
who had agreed not to accept any grant of lands or 
profit from them for themselves. On the other side 
of the seal were two figures representing the boundary 
rivers, and between them a figure of Georgia, a lib- 
erty cap on her head, a spear in one hand, a horn of 
plenty in the other. Some of the patrons were con- 
tent with the lofty ideals expressed in the seal and 
the charter, but James Oglethorpe meant to see the 
noble project carried out. 

With a commission to act as Colonial Governor 
of Georgia Oglethorpe sailed with about one hun- 
dred and twenty emigrants for America in November, 
1732. In fifty-seven days he reached the bar out- 
side Charleston. There the colonists of South 
Carolina welcomed the new arrivals warmly, for 
they were glad to have a province to their south to 
shield them from their Spanish enemies. The gov- 
ernor ordered his pilot to conduct the ship to Port 
Royal, some eighty miles to the south, from whence 
the emigrants were to go in small boats to the 
Savannah River. Oglethorpe meanwhile went to 
the town of Beaufort and then sailed up the Sa- 
vannah to choose a promising site for his new town. 
The high cliff known as Yamacraw Bluff caught his 
eye, and he chose for his site that high land on which 
the city of Savannah stands. 

Half a mile away dwelt the Indian tribe of the 
Yamacraws, and their chief, Tomochichi, sought the 



248 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

white leader and made gifts to him. One gift was a 
buffalo skin, painted on the inside with the head and 
feathers of an eagle. " Here is a little present," said 
the chief, offering the skin. " The feathers of the 
eagle are soft, and signify love ; the buffalo skin is 
warm, and is the emblem of protection. Therefore 
love and protect our little families." We may be 
sure that Oglethorpe promised to live in friendship 
with them. 

On February 12th the colonists reached their new 
home, and camped on the edge of the river, glad to 
escape from their long stay on shipboard. Four 
tents were set up, and men cut trees to provide 
bowers for their immediate needs. Four pines 
sheltered the tent of Oglethorpe, and here he lived 
for a year, while men laid out streets and built 
houses and his city of Savannah began to take 
shape. 

Much good counsel the leader gave his people in 
those first days, warning them often against the 
drinking of rum, which would not only harm them- 
selves, but would corrupt their Indian neighbors. 
" It is my hope," said he, " that, through your good 
example, the settlement of Georgia may prove a 
blessing and not a curse to the native inhabitants." 

It was a lovely country, and the emigrants, 
harassed by debts and misfortunes in Europe, were 
delighted with the groves of live-oak, bay, cypress, 
sweet-gum, and myrtle, and the many flowers that 
grew profusely in the wilderness. While they worked 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 249 

gladly in their new fields Oglethorpe, knowing their 
security depended in part on their neighbors, did his 
best to make friends of the red men. He invited 
the chiefs of the Muskohgees to make an alliance 
with him, and they came down the river and through 
the woods to his tent. Long King, chief of the 
Oconas, spoke for the others. " The Great Spirit, 
who dwells everywhere around, and gives breath to 
all men," said he, " sends the English to instruct us." 
He bade the strangers welcome to the land that his 
tribe did not use, and as token of friendship, laid 
eight bundles of buckskins at Oglethorpe's feet. 
" Tomochichi," he said, "though banished from his 
nation, has yet been a great warrior ; and, for his 
wisdom and courage, the exiles chose him their 
king." Then Tomochichi expressed his friendship 
for the white men. The chief of Coweta rose and 
said, "We are come twenty-five days' journey to see 
you. I was never willing to go down to Charleston, 
lest I should die on the way ; but when I heard you 
were come, and that you are good men, I came 
down, that I might hear good things." A treaty of 
peace was then signed, by which the English claimed 
title over the land of the Creeks as far as the St. Johns 
River, and the chiefs departed with many presents. 

Later a Cherokee came to the settlement. " Fear 
nothing," said Oglethorpe, " but speak freely." The 
red man from the mountains answered proudly, " I 
always speak freely. Why should I fear? I am 
now among friends ; I never feared even among 



250 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

my enemies." Friends were then made of the 
Cherokees. 

In July Red Shoes, a Choctaw chief, arrived to 
make a treaty. " We came a great way," said he, 
" and we are a great nation. The French are build- 
ing forts about us, against our liking. We have 
long traded with them, but they are poor in goods ; 
we desire that a trade may be opened between us 
and you." 

Other people than the poor debtors of England 
soon came to the province. The Archbishop of 
Salzburg by his cruel persecutions drove scores of 
Lutherans from his country, and many of these pre- 
pared to cross the ocean to the new settlement on 
the Savannah River. They traveled from their Salz- 
burg home through part of Germany, past cities 
that were closed against them, through country dis- 
tricts where they were made welcome. From Rot- 
terdam they sailed to Dover, and from there set 
forth in January, 1734, for their new home in the 
land across the Atlantic. The sea was a strange 
experience to the Lutheran families of Salzburg ; 
when it was calm they delighted in its beauty, when 
it was swept by storms they prayed and sang the 
songs of their faith. They reached the port of 
Charleston on March 18, 1734, and Oglethorpe wel- 
comed them there, not forgetting to have supplies 
of fresh provisions and vegetables from his Georgia 
gardens for the people who had been so long with- 
out them. 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 251 

A few days later the colonists from Salzburg 
sailed up the Savannah River and were met by the 
earlier colonists. A feast of welcome had been pre- 
pared. Then Governor Oglethorpe gave the stran- 
gers permission to select their home in any part of 
the province. The country was most of it still an 
untraversed wilderness, and so Oglethorpe supplied 
horses and traveled with his new colonists. With 
the aid of Indian guides they made their way 
through morasses, they camped at night around 
fires in the primeval forest. At last they reached a 
green valley, watered by several brooks, and this 
they chose for their settlement and named it Eben- 
ezer in thankfulness to their God for having brought 
them safely through great dangers into a land of 
rest. Oglethorpe had his own carpenters help them 
build their houses and aided them in planning their 
new town. 

That the land about Ebenezer was very fruitful is 
shown by a letter written by the pastor of the Lu- 
theran colonists. Said he, " Some time ago I wrote 
to an honored friend in Europe that the land in this 
country, if well managed and labored, brings forth 
by the blessing of God not only one hundredfold, 
but one thousandfold, and I this day was confirmed 
therein. A woman having two years ago picked 
out of Indian corn no more than three grains of rye, 
and planting them at Ebenezer, one of the grains 
produced an hundred and seventy stalks and ears, 
and the three grains yielded to her a bag of corn as 



252 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

large as a coat pocket — the grains whereof were 
good and full grown, and she desired me to send 
part of them to a kind benefactor in Europe." 

His colony now well started, Oglethorpe sailed 
back to England in April, 1734, taking with him the 
Indian Tomochichi and several other chiefs, in order 
that they might see the country from which so many 
of their new neighbors were coming, and also that 
his English friends might learn how friendly the In- 
dians were to the settlers. He was received in Lon- 
don with expressions of the highest praise. His 
experiment in founding a colony for poor debtors 
and for those persecuted for their religion was de- 
clared to be a wonderful success. Missionaries vol- 
unteered to go to Georgia to work among the Indi- 
ans. One of the rules of the province forbade the 
importing of slaves into its borders, and this was re- 
garded in England with the greatest favor. Yet a 
little later people in Savannah were petitioning the 
trustees of the province to allow them to have 
slaves, and many an influential man in England 
argued in favor of the slave-trade. 

To such an attractive colony many new colonists 
went. A company of one hundred and thirty 
Scotchmen with their families sailed for Savannah, 
and settled on the shore of the Altamaha, founding 
the town of New Inverness, a name afterward 
changed to Darien. A small band of Moravians 
was led across the Atlantic by their pastor to the 
new province, and this youngest of the English col- 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 253 

onies quickly gave promise of becoming one of the 
most prosperous. 

Oglethorpe wanted still more colonists, and at 
length succeeded in embarking three hundred per- 
sons on three ships in December, 1735. On Febru- 
ary 4th the cry of land was heard from the lookout, 
and two days later the fleet anchored near Tybee 
Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River. Land- 
ing, Oglethorpe gave thanks for their safe arrival, 
and showing them how to dig a well and make other 
arrangements for their comfort he went on by small- 
boat to Savannah, where the colonists saluted him 
with twenty-one guns from the fort. 

Three years before the land beside the river had 
been a wilderness. Oglethorpe now found a town 
of two hundred dwellings, with beautiful public gar- 
dens, and every sign of prosperous industry. The 
gardens especially pleased the governor ; on the 
colder side were planted apples, pears, and plums, 
while to the south were olives, figs, pomegranates, 
and many kinds of vines. There were also coffee and 
cotton, and a large space planted with white mulberry 
trees, making a nursery from which the people were 
to be supplied in their culture of silkworms. 

The governor went back to see the new colonists 
at Tybee, and when he found that some disgruntled 
traders had been making trouble by spreading 
reports that all settlers who went south would be 
massacred by Spaniards and Indians, he assured 
them that such stories were altogether false. The 



254 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Spaniards were at peace with them, and they had 
treaties of alliance with the Indians. He wanted, 
however, to make the outlying settlements as secure 
as he could, and so sent fifty rangers and one hun- 
dred workmen under Captain McPherson to help 
the Scotch at Darien, had men inspect the country 
with a view to opening a highroad, and suppHed 
them with Indian guides and plenty of packhorses 
for their provisions. 

While Oglethorpe was at Tybee the Indian chief 
Tomochichi, with his wife and nephew, came to 
visit the ships there. The chief brought presents of 
venison, honey, and milk. When he was introduced 
to the missionaries who had come with the latest 
colonists, Tomochichi said, " I am glad you are 
come. When I was in England I desired that some 
one would speak the great Word to me. I will go 
up and speak to the wise men of our nation, and I 
hope they will hear. But we would not be made 
Christians as these Spaniards make Christians ; we 
would be taught before we are baptized." The 
chief's wife then gave the missionaries two large 
jars, one of honey and one of milk, and invited them 
to go to Yamacraw to teach the children, saying the 
milk represented food for the children and the honey 
their good wishes. 

He now wanted to transport the new settlers to 
their homes as soon as possible ; but the mates of 
the English ships were afraid to risk navigating 
Jekyll Sound. So Oglethorpe bought one of the 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 255 

sloops, put thirty old colonists, well armed, on board, 
and told them to sail to St. Simons. He himself, 
with a white crew and a few Indians, set out for the 
same place in a scout boat and traveled night and 
day. The Indians showed the white men their way 
of rowing, a short stroke and a long stroke alter- 
nately, what they called the " Yamasee stroke." 
Taking turns at the oars the party reached St. 
Simons after two days' journey. They found the 
sloop already there, and the governor gave a large 
reward to the captain for being the first to enter that 
port. 

All hands now set to work to build a booth for the 
stores. They threw up earth for a bank, and raised 
poles on it to support a roof. The booth was thickly 
covered with palmetto leaves. Cabins were then 
built for the families, and a fort, with ditches and 
ramparts, was begun. 

Next Oglethorpe went to Darien, dressing in 
Highland costume out of compliment to the Scotch- 
men there. The Highlanders, clad in kilts, with 
broadswords, targets, and firearms, gave him a royal 
welcome. Their captain invited the governor to 
sleep in his tent on a soft bed with sheets and 
curtains, a great luxury in the wilderness, but 
Oglethorpe preferred to sleep in his plaid at the 
guard fire, sharing everything, according to his 
custom, with his men. 

He found that the Scotch at Darien had already 
built a fort, defended by four cannon, a chapel, a 



256 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

guard-house, and a store. They were on the friend- 
liest terms with their Indian neighbors, and hunted 
buffalo through the Georgia woods with them like 
members of their own tribe. 

In the Georgia woods there was plenty of game, 
rabbits, squirrels, partridges, wild turkeys, pheasants 
and roebuck. There were also rattlesnakes and 
alligators, and the alligators so frightened the settlers 
at first that Oglethorpe had one of them caught and 
brought to Savannah, so the people might grow 
familiar with it and lose their fear of it. 

He wanted now to mark out his boundaries with 
the Indians, and also to learn what had become of 
Mr. Dempsey, a commissioner he had sent to confer 
with the Spanish governor of Florida, who had not 
been heard from. In two scout boats, with forty 
Indians, he rowed across Jekyll Sound, sleeping one 
night in a grove of pines, and the second day 
reached an island formerly called Wisso or Sassafras, 
but which Tomochichi had now christened Cumber- 
land in honor of the young English prince he had 
met in London. Here Oglethorpe marked out a 
fort to be called St. Andrews, and left a few white 
men to carry out its building. 

The governor rowed on through the marshes, and 
came to an island covered with orange-trees in 
blossom. The Spaniards had called this Santa 
Maria, but Oglethorpe changed its name to Amelia, 
in honor of an English princess. They also changed 
the name of the next island they reached from the 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 257 

Spanish San Juan to Georgia. Here was an old 
fort supposed to have been built by Sir Francis 
Drake, and Oglethorpe sent one of his captains to 
repair it. 

They climbed some heights and Tomochichi 
pointed out the St. Johns River, the boundary line 
of Spanish territory. A Spanish guard-house stood 
on the other side. " All on this side the river we 
hunt," said Tomochichi. " It is our ground. All on 
the other side they hunt, but they have lately hurt 
some of our people, and we shall drive them away. 
We will stay until night behind these rocks, where 
they cannot see us ; then we will fall upon them." 

Oglethorpe tried to persuade them not to attack 
the Spaniards, and got them to stay near Amelia 
Island while he went in one of the scout boats to the 
guard-house to find out what had happened to Mr. 
Dempsey, the agent he had sent to St. Augustine. 
He found no one in the guard-house and so re- 
turned to the camp, where all his party were except 
Tomochichi, who had gone scouting. 

That night the governor's sentry challenged a 
boat. Four Indians jumped out, all of them in a 
rage. They said to Oglethorpe, " Tomochichi has 
seen enemies, and has sent us to tell you and to help 
you." 

" Why didn't Tomochichi come back ? " asked the 
governor. 

" Tomochichi is an old warrior," the Indians 
answered, " and will not come away from his ene- 



258 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

mies till he has seen them so near as to count them. 
He saw their fires, and before daylight will be re- 
venged for the men whom they killed while he was 
away ; but we shall have no honor, for we shall not 
be there." 

Oglethorpe asked if there were many of them, and 
the messengers answered, "Yes, a great many, for 
they had a large fire on high ground, and Indians 
never make large fires except when so strong as to 
defy all resistance." 

This didn't suit Oglethorpe at all, and he imme- 
diately ordered all his men into their boats, and 
rowed to the Indian chief's hiding-place, some four 
miles away. He found the chief and his men and 
urged them not to attack the Spaniards that night. 
Tomochichi was for going on, however. " Then," 
said the governor, " you go to kill your enemies in 
the night because you are afraid of them by the day. 
Now I do not fear them at any time. Therefore wait 
until day, and I will go with you and see who they 
are." 

Tomochichi reluctantly agreed to wait. '* We do 
not fear them by day," said he, " but if we do not 
kill them to-night they will kill you to-morrow." 

At daylight the whole party started toward the 
foe. Soon they saw a white flag flying on the shore 
and white men near it. But, to Oglethorpe's delight, 
the men turned out not to be Spaniards, but one of 
his own of^cers, Major Richards, with Mr. Dempsey 
and his mates, back from Florida. 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 259 

The agent reported that his party had had many 
adventures, but had finally reached St. Augustine, 
where Don Francisco, the governor, had welcomed 
them and given them letters for Oglethorpe, asking 
for an answer in three weeks. 

The expedition returned to Frederica, where the 
governor read his men the contents of the Spaniard's 
letters. These were full of flattering phrases, but 
there was also complaint that the Creeks had at- 
tacked Spaniards, and requests that Oglethorpe 
should restrain his Indian allies. The governor sus- 
pected that these requests were only a blind to hide 
a future attack by the Spaniards on the English 
colonists, but he was very anxious to avoid such 
trouble if it was possible, so he sent a boat of twenty 
oars, fitted out with swivel-guns, to patrol the St- 
Johns River and keep any Creek Indians from cross- 
ing to attack the Spaniards. He also stationed 
scout boats at other places, and asked Tomochichi 
to send word to the Creeks that their ally, the gov- 
ernor of Georgia, requested them not to make raids 
into Florida, but to keep guard on the mainland in 
the neighborhood of the settlement at Darien. 

Soon after Oglethorpe returned to Savannah he 
saw that trouble was brewing with the Spaniards. 
He heard that a large troop of soldiers had lately 
marched from St. Augustine. He knew that there 
was a garrison of three hundred foot-soldiers and 
fifty horse at St. Augustine, with reinforcements 
coming from Havana, and that he had not a single 



26o HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

regular soldier with which to oppose them. Then 
word came that a fleet of strange ships had been seen 
at sea. He ordered his colonists to strengthen their 
fort at once, and set out in a boat for St. Andrews to 
learn exactly how matters stood. 

From Fort St. George he crossed to the Spanish 
side of the St. Johns River, and climbing a hill, 
fastened a white flag to a pole, hoping the Spaniards 
would come to a conference with him. None came, 
however, but fires were seen on the Florida side that 
night, and the governor thought the Spaniards were 
planning an attack. He ordered two gun-carriages 
and two swivel-guns taken into the woods and placed 
at different points. The larger guns were to fire 
seven shots, and the smaller to answer with five. The 
latter would sound like a distant ship firing a salute, 
and the larger guns would resemble the noise of a 
battery returning the salute. In this way Oglethorpe 
hoped to make the Spaniards think that reinforce- 
ments were coming to the aid of the Georgians. 

By this trick Oglethorpe escaped great danger. 
As a matter of fact the Spanish governor had ar- 
rested Oglethorpe's messengers, and had sent a 
strong force to attack the fort on St. Simons Island. 
The battery there, however, drove the Spaniards out 
to sea again, and when they tried to approach by 
another inlet they were driven off the second time by 
the garrison at St. Andrews. They then decided to 
attack St. George, but as they were planning this they 
heard the booming of the distant cannon, thought 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 261 

reinforcements must be arriving, as Oglethorpe had 
figured on their thinking, and decided not to make 
the attack at all then. 

At the same time Oglethorpe lighted fires in the 
woods, thereby making his enemy believe that 
Creek Indians were coming to join the English. 
The Spanish commander, Don Pedro, gave the order 
to return to the walls of St. Augustine, and there, by 
his reports of the numbers of Oglethorpe's troops, 
induced the Spanish governor to send back Ogle- 
thorpe's two agents, and with them one of his own 
officers to urge the Englishman to keep his Indian 
allies from invading Florida. 

Oglethorpe, however, did not know that Don 
Pedro had returned to St. Augustine, and so, with 
twenty-four men, crossed the St. Johns River to the 
Spanish side, hoping to get word of his agents. He 
saw a Spanish boat with seventy men on board. 
The boat headed away at sight of the English 
colonists. Then two Spanish horsemen appeared 
and forbade the English landing on the soil of the 
king of Spain. Oglethorpe said that he would do 
as they wished, but he invited them to land on 
English ground if they desired and offered them 
wine should they come. 

The governor now learned that men in Charleston 
were selling arms and ammunition to the Spaniards, 
regardless of the fact that the latter meant to use 
them against the former's own English neighbors. 
He wrote to men in South Carolina urging them not 



262 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

to allow this, but in spite of his protests the men of 
Florida continued for some time to draw a large 
part of their supplies from the colony to the north of 
Georgia. 

Then he returned to Fort St. George, taking with 
him Tomochichi and his men in their canoes, a large 
barge, and two ten-oared boats with fifty soldiers, 
cannon, and stores for two months. On the way he 
heard that his agents were coming back accom- 
panied by two Spanish officers. He did not want 
the Spaniards to learn the strength of his garrison, 
so he gave orders that they should be entertained on 
board his ship the Hawk, on the excuse that the 
country was full of Indians who might otherwise at- 
tack the Spaniards. 

Tents were set up on Jekyll Island, the Scotchmen 
dressed in their plaids, the whole garrison assumed 
its most martial air, and Oglethorpe, attended by 
seven officers, embarked for the Haivk, his purpose 
being to impress the Spaniards with the size of his 
forces. The Spaniards were impressed ; they prom- 
ised on their part to right the wrongs that Ogle- 
thorpe's Indian allies complained of, and gained a 
promise from him in return that he would do his 
best to keep the Creeks and other tribes from mo- 
lesting the Spanish settlers. Later, on his return to 
Savannah, the governor made a treaty with the 
Spanish governor. More and more bickering arose, 
however, between the settlers of the two nations, and 
so Oglethorpe sailed for England in November, 1 736, 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 263 

hoping to win aid for his colony from the British 
government. 

II 

Oglethorpe had no sooner reached England than 
word came that the governor of Florida had ordered 
every English merchant to leave his territory and 
was planning for warfare. The king of England at 
once appointed Oglethorpe commander-in-chief of 
all his troops in Carolina and Georgia, and ordered 
a regiment to be raised and equipped for service 
there. Troops were sent from Gibraltar, and mean- 
time the governor busied himself in urging men and 
women to go out with him to America as colonists. 
The terms he offered them were so promising that 
finally he sailed from Portsmouth with five trans- 
ports, carrying six hundred men, women, and chil- 
dren, besides arms and provisions. 

In a little more than two months this new party 
reached St. Simons Island. The settlers there, who 
had been fearing an attack by the Spaniards, were 
delighted to welcome the general and his company. 
Oglethorpe went to work at once to strengthen the 
forts, to build roads between the forts and the towns, 
and to station scout ships to give notice of any hos- 
tile fleet. Then he went to Savannah, where cannon 
roared at his approach and the settlers crowded 
about to welcome their trusted governor and gen- 
eral. Tomochichi and the chiefs of the Creek na- 
tions came to assure him of their loyalty and offered 



264 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

to serve him at any time against their common ene- 
mies the Spaniards. 

General Oglethorpe well knew how important 
the help of the Indians might be to him, and so 
decided to journey through the wilderness to visit 
the various tribes. This meant a long and peril- 
ous trip. It is partly described for us. "Through 
tangled thickets," runs an account of the journey, 
"along rough ravines, over dreary swamps in 
which the horses reared and plunged, the travelers 
patiently followed their native guides. More than 
once they had to construct rafts on which to cross 
the rivers, and many smaller streams were crossed 
by wading or swimming. . . . Wrapped in his 
cloak, with his portmanteau for a pillow, their hardy 
leader lay down to sleep upon the ground, or if the 
night were wet he sheltered himself in a covert of 
cypress boughs spread upon poles. For two hun- 
dred miles they neither saw a human habitation, nor 
met a soul ; but as they neared their journey's end 
they found here and there provisions, which the 
primitive people they were about to visit had de- 
posited for them in the woods. . . . When 
within fifty miles of his destination, the general was 
met by a deputation of chiefs who escorted him to 
Coweta ; and although the American aborigines are 
rarely demonstrative, nothing could exceed the joy 
manifested by them on Oglethorpe's arrival. . . . 
By having undertaken so long and difficult a journey 
for the purpose of visiting them, by coming with 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 265 

only a few attendants in fearless reliance on their 
good faith, by the readiness with which he accommo- 
dated himself to their habits, and by the natural dig- 
nity of his deportment, Oglethorpe had won tiie 
hearts of his red brothers, whom he was never 
known to deceive." 

A great council was held, a cup of the sacrod 
black-medicine was drunk by the white man and the 
chiefs, the calumet or pipe of peace was smoked, 
and a treaty was drawn up, by which the Creeks re- 
newed their allegiance to the king of England while 
Oglethorpe promised that the English would not en- 
croach upon the Creeks' country and that the traders 
would deal honestly with them. 

On his way home the governor fell ill of fever and 
had to stay at Fort Augusta for several weeks. 
Here chiefs of the Cherokees and Chickasaws came 
to him, complaining that some of their people had 
been poisoned by rum they had bought from Eng- 
lish traders. Inquiry showed that traders had not 
only brought bad rum, but smallpox also, to the 
Indians, and the governor promised the chiefs that 
hereafter he would only permit certain licensed 
traders to come among them. 

Troubles over runaway slaves, who left South 
Carolina and Georgia for Florida and were protected 
by the Spanish there, soon brought fresh contro- 
versies between the settlers on the two sides of the 
border. England, moreover, was preparing for war 
with Spain. On October 2, 1739, the men of Savan- 



266 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

nah met at the court-house and General Oglethorpe 
announced to them that England had declared war 
on Spain. The governor's militia was now well 
armed and trained, ships guarded the coast, he had 
a string of forts protecting his borders. Yet he, like 
the government in England, would very much have 
preferred to keep the peace with the Spaniards, and 
was only driven to hostilities because the latter were 
constantly making trouble for his colonists and seizing 
English merchant ships and imprisoning their crews. 

The southernmost outpost of Georgia was now 
Amelia Island, where there was a settlement of about 
forty persons. They were protected by palisades 
and several cannon. In November some Spaniards 
landed at night and hid in the woods. Shots were 
heard in the fort, and the English soldiers, searching 
the woods, found the bodies of two of the Highland- 
ers. The Spaniards had shot them, and escaped in 
their boats. 

At once Oglethorpe, with some of his Scotchmen 
and Indians, marched into Florida. He captured 
Spanish boats at the mouth of the St. Johns River, 
and went on toward St. Augustine. A troop of the 
enemy came out to attack him, but fled before the 
rush of his Indians. 

He knew that he needed more troops, however, if 
he were to make good his war on Florida, so he sent 
to South Carolina, urging the governor of that col- 
ony to contribute as many soldiers as Georgia had 
supplied. This caused some delay, but at length 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 267 

arrangements were completed, and Oglethorpe was 
prepared to take the field. 

In May the general assembled four hundred of his 
soldiers, Creek Indians under their chief Malachee, 
Cherokees under their chief Raven, at St. George 
Island, at the mouth of the St. Johns River. Ogle- 
thorpe's object was to cut off supplies from St. Au- 
gustine. His men crossed the river, and a body of 
Indians and a few white soldiers made an attack on 
the Spanish fort at San Diego. This place was de- 
fended by a number of large guns, and the first at- 
tack on it failed. Then Oglethorpe came up with 
the rest of his men and decided to try a little strat- 
egy. He ordered some of his soldiers to beat 
drums in different parts of the woods and other 
soldiers to march out at these places and march back 
again, the same soldiers appearing again and again. 
The Spanish garrison, seeing so many men at so 
many different points in the woods, soon concluded 
that the English had an overwhelming force in the 
field against them. Then Oglethorpe sent a Span- 
ish prisoner he had captured to tell the garrison 
how well he had been treated. Thereupon the gar- 
rison surrendered to the English general. 

The troops from Carolina had not yet arrived, and 
Oglethorpe learned that, while they delayed, two 
sloops filled with provisions and ammunition and 
six Spanish galleys had reached St. Augustine. On 
the eighteenth of May, however, two English ships 
anchored in the harbor and two others blocked the 



268 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

southern entrance to the Spanish port, and soon 
afterward a part of the troops from CaroHna joined 
the general. He then gave the order to advance on 
the Spanish town. 

St. Augustine was defended by 2,000 soldiers, 
quite as many as the troops Oglethorpe had mar- 
shaled against it. The Spanish artillery was vastly 
superior to that of the English. If the town was to 
be taken the sea forces must attack at the same time 
as the land forces, and signals were arranged for 
such a joint attack. 

The general came to Fort Moosa, three miles from 
St. Augustine, and found the garrison had aban- 
doned it. He gave orders to burn the gate there 
and make holes in the walls, " lest," as he said, " it 
might one day or other be a mouse-trap for some of 
our own people." Marching on, he gave the signal 
to attack the Spanish capital, but was surprised that 
the fleet gave him no answering signal. Later he 
learned that the Spaniards had deployed their ships 
in such a way that a sea attack would have been 
very difficult, and that the English commanders had 
decided that if they made the attack as agreed upon 
they would probably be defeated. Therefore the 
general determined that instead of an assault he 
would attempt a blockade. 

He returned to Fort Diego, and ordered Colonel 
Palmer, with over two hundred Scotchmen and In- 
dians to march to Fort Moosa and scout through 
the woods to prevent any communication between 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 269 

St. Augustine and the interior of Florida. Colonel 
Palmer was told to camp each night in a new place, 
to avoid battle, and to return at once if a larger force 
than his own appeared. Another officer was sent 
with the Carolina soldiers to take Point Quartell, 
which was about a mile distant from the castle of St. 
Augustine, and build a battery there to command 
the northern entrance to the harbor. 

The general himself set out to capture the Span- 
iards' battery at Anastasia, and by clever maneuvers 
there succeeded in driving the enemy to their boats. 
Oglethorpe set up cannon and sent an envoy to the 
Spanish governor, calling on him to surrender. The 
Spaniard replied that he should be glad to shake 
hands with General Oglethorpe if the latter would 
come to him in his castle. In answer Oglethorpe 
opened fire from his new battery, but the distance to 
the town was too great for his guns and little harm 
was done the enemy. 

Colonel Palmer, meantime, disregarding the gen- 
eral's orders to camp in a new place each night, 
had kept his men in the partly demolished Fort 
Moosa. The Spaniards sent six hundred men to at- 
tack his small force. Palmer's soldiers resisted des- 
perately, but the Highlanders and the Indians were 
too much outnumbered by the Spaniards ; half of 
them, including Colonel Palmer, were killed, a few 
escaped, and the rest were made prisoners. 

The commander of the fleet also disregarded the 
arrangement he had made with Oglethorpe and 



2;o HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

ordered off the war-ship stationed outside the harbor, 
with the result that several sloops from Havana with 
new troops and provisions stole into the channel and 
reached the Spanish stronghold. The garrison at 
St. Augustine had begun to feel the pinch of hunger 
and might soon have surrendered, but these fresh 
supplies tided them over and enabled them to keep 
up their defense. 

General Oglethorpe, discouraged in his plan of a 
blockade, decided to make one more attempt at 
carrying the town by assault. The British commo- 
dore, Pearse, was to attack with his fleet while 
Oglethorpe led his soldiers by land. The colonial 
troops and Indians were ready to open fire, and 
only waited the signal from the ships. They waited 
in vain, however. Instead of keeping his agree- 
ment. Commodore Pearse quietly sailed away with 
all his ships, sending word to General Oglethorpe 
that it was now the season when hurricanes might 
be e.xpected off the Florida coast and that he didn't 
intend to risk His Majesty's fleet there any longer. 

Oglethorpe, who alone seemed really in earnest in 
his desire to fight the Spaniards, deserted by the 
English fleet, getting very little support from the 
ofificers and men of the Carolina regiments, found it 
impossible to carry on the campaign. Even his own 
men from Georgia were worn out bv fatigue and 
the heat of Florida. Reluctantly therefore he gave 
over his expedition, and returned to Savannah. The 
campaign, however, had shown the Spaniards that 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 271 

the governor of Georgia was a man whose po\\'er 
was to be respected, and they did not renew their 
raids into his province for some years. 

Oglethorpe was a great builder as well as a very 
skilful military leader, and he used this time of peace 
to improve the prosperity and beauty of the towns 
he had settled in his colony. Savannah was already 
a thriving place, with fine squares, parks, and wide 
shaded streets. Now he turned his attention to 
Frederica, a town of a thousand settlers. He meant 
this to be a strong frontier fort, and designed an 
esplanade, barracks, parade-ground, fortifications, 
everything that could be of use to protect Frederica 
from an enemy. 

Not far from Frederica, on the same island of 
St. Simons, was a small settlement called Little 
St. Simons. A road connected the two places, run- 
ning over a beautiful prairie and through a forest, 
and at the edge of this forest Oglethorpe built him- 
self a small cottage and planted a garden and an 
orchard of oranges, grapes and figs. Here he made 
his home, where he could watch the water and keep 
an eye on Frederica and its forts. A number of his 
officers built country-seats for themselves near the 
general's cottage, almost all of them larger and 
more pretentious than that of the general. Strange 
as it may seem, the founder of Georgia never claimed 
or owned any other land in his province but this one 
small place, and he lived almost as simply as the 
poorest colonist, a great contrast to the elaborate 



2/2 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

state kept by the governors of such colonies as 
Virginia and Maryland or the luxury of William 
Penn's home at Pennsbury. 

Meantime other forts were built in the southern 
part of Georgia, one on Jekyll Island, another on 
Cumberland Island, a third at Fort William ; and 
fortunately the governor saw to all this, for his 
province was to be for some time the buffer between 
the English and the Spaniards, two peoples who 
were constantly either on the verge of warfare or 
actually fighting. The mother-countries of England 
and Spain were always at swords' points, and those 
troubles on the other side of the Atlantic were sure 
to bring the American colonists into the same strife. 
Each country hectored the other. In the spring of 
1740 the British government decided to attack Spain 
through its American possessions. France also de- 
cided to take a hand in the business, and this time 
joined with Spain. Ships of these two countries set 
sail for the West Indies and threatened the British 
colony of Jamaica. The English admiral, Vernon, 
was despatched with a large squadron to attack the 
enemy, but instead of sailing to Havana he turned 
in the direction of Hispaniola to watch the French 
fleet, and so lost a splendid chance to capture the 
Spanish stronghold of Havana. General Ogle- 
thorpe learned of this, and in May, 1641, he wrote 
to the Duke of Newcasde in England, explaining 
how matters stood in that part of America and stat- 
ing what the colonists would need if they were to 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 273 

carry on a successful war with the Spanish Dons of 
Florida and the West Indies. 

His letter was laid before the proper officers in 
England, but, as so often happened in such cases, 
those officers, far though they were from the scene 
of action, thought they knew more about conditions 
in Georgia and Florida than Oglethorpe did. The 
government delayed and delayed, while the general 
waited for an answer to his requests. Then he had 
to write again to England. Either the northern 
colonies or the mother-country was accustomed to 
supply his province with flour, but now Spanish 
privateers were capturing the merchant vessels that 
brought it. Only two English men-of-war were 
stationed off the coast, and they were insufficient to 
protect it from privateers. A Spanish rover had 
just seized a ship off Charleston Harbor with a great 
quantity of supplies on board. When Oglethorpe 
heard of this he sent out his guard-sloop and a 
schooner he had hired, met three Spanish ships, 
forced them to fly, attacked one of their privateers 
and drove it ashore. Then he bought a good-sized 
vessel and prepared it for service on the coast until 
the English should send him a proper fleet. 

A latge Spanish ship was sighted off the bar 
of Jekyll Sound on August i6th. The intrepid 
governor manned his sloop and two other vessels, 
the Falcon and the Norfork, and started in pursuit. 
He ran into a storm, and when the weather had 
cleared the Spaniard had disappeared. The storm 



274 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

had disabled the Falcon, and she had to put back, 
but Oglethorpe sailed on with the other two, laying 
his course for Florida, and a few days later sighted 
the Spanish ship at anchor. 

The Spaniard was a man-of-war, and with her was 
another ship, by name the Black Sloop, with a record 
as a daring privateer. But Oglethorpe was equal 
in daring to any Spanish captain. He ordered his 
small boats put out to tow his two ships, the weather 
being now a calm, and as they approached the en- 
emy, gave the command to board. The two Span- 
ish vessels opened fire, but Oglethorpe's guns an- 
swered so vigorously that the Spaniards quickly 
weighed anchor, and, a light breeze coming to their 
aid, were able to run across the bar of the harbor. 

The English followed, and, though they could not 
board the enemy, fought them for an hour, at the 
end of which the Spaniards were so disabled that 
they ran for the town, while half a dozen of their 
small galleys came out to safeguard their retreat. 

Other Spanish vessels were lying in the harbor, 
but none dared to attack the two ships of Oglethorpe, 
and the governor spent that night at anchor within 
sight of the castle of St. Augustine. Next day he 
sailed for the open sea again, and there cruised up 
and down outside the bar, as if daring the Spaniards 
to come out to meet him. When they refused to 
come he sailed back to Frederica, having spread a 
proper fear of his small fleet of two ships all along 
the Florida coast. 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 275 

Perhaps the greatest service that Oglethorpe ren- 
dered to his colony was his retaining the friendship 
of all the neighboring Indian tribes. This he did by 
always treating them fairly and impressing them 
with his sincere interest in their own welfare. An- 
other man might have let the Indians see that he 
was merely using them to protect his own white 
settlers, but Oglethorpe convinced them that he was 
equally concerned in protecting both red men and 
white from ill-usage by the French and Spanish. 
Georgia moreover needed the friendship of the na- 
tive tribes much more than the other English 
colonies did. It was nearest to the strong Spanish 
settlements in Florida, and its neighbor to the north, 
South Carolina, was able to furnish it very little as- 
sistance in times of need, and was often barely able 
to protect itself. Had the Creeks, the Chickasaws 
and Cherokees been allies of the Spaniards or the 
French instead of allies of Georgia the English set- 
tlers would have found themselves in hot water most 
of the time. 

The general had difificulty in corresponding with 
England and letting the people there know what he 
needed. " Seven out of eight letters miscarry," he 
said. Fortunately no more English merchantmen 
were captured by Spanish privateers ; the Dons had 
apparently been taught a lesson by the vigorous at- 
tack Oglethorpe had made on their own ships. 

To keep this lesson in their mind the governor 
sailed again for St. Augustine, but ran into a storm 



276 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

that almost destroyed his fleet. At nearly the same 
time a privateer reached the bar outside St. Augustine 
with large supplies for the garrison. The Spanish 
governor, as usual in need of fresh supplies, joy- 
fully hailed the privateer, sent out a pilot with two 
galleys to bring her into the harbor, fired the guns 
from his castle, and ordered some of his Indians to 
cut wood and build a welcoming bonfire. 

Oglethorpe and his Indian allies were on the alert, 
however. A party of his Creek friends attacked the 
Spanish Indians and captured five of them. At the 
same time one of his ships reached the privateer 
before the tide was high enough to float her over 
the bar, seized her, and took her to Frederica. Now 
the settlers of Georgia, and even of South Carolina, 
praised the general for his vigilance and dashing 
courage. A merchant of Charleston wrote, " Our 
wrongheads now begin to own that the security of 
our southern settlements and trade is owing to the 
vigilance and unwearied endeavors of His Excellency 
in annoying the enemy." 

Yet, in spite of this, Carolina continued to fail in 
providing the men or ships or supplies that Ogle- 
thorpe, Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's forces 
in Georgia and Carolina, requested of it. 

Presently the Spaniards, following the policy of 
England in trying to annoy enemy colonies in Amer- 
ica, took the offensive. A Spanish fleet of more 
than fifty ships, with more than 5,000 soldiers on board, 
was despatched to attack the English settlements. 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 277 

Fourteen of the ships tried to reach Fort William, 
but were driven back by the battery there. They 
then made for Cumberland Sound. Oglethorpe sent 
out Captain Horton with white soldiers and Indians 
and followed with more troops in three boats. The 
Spanish ships attacked him, but he fought his way 
through their fleet with two of his boats. The third 
boat made for a creek, hid there until the next day, 
and then returned to St. Simons with the report that 
General Oglethorpe had been overpowered and 
killed. A day later, however, the people of St. Si- 
mons were delighted to see their general return safe 
and sound. He had escaped damage from the 
Spaniards, but had hit them so hard with his guns 
that four of their ships foundered on the way back to 
St. Augustine for repairs. 

At once he prepared ships and men for another 
conflict. His daring had so inspired his crews that 
as some of them said, " We were ready for twice our 
number of Spaniards." They soon had their chance. 
Thirty-six Spanish ships in line of battle ran into St. 
Simons harbor. The forts and the vessels there 
opened fire at once. Three times the enemy tried to 
board the Success, a ship of twenty guns and one 
hundred men, but each time the crew proved that 
they really were ready for twice their number of 
Spaniards. After fighting for four hours the Span- 
iards gave up the battle and sailed up the river in 
the direction of Frederica. 

Oglethorpe called a council of war. In view of 



278 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the great number of Spanish ships it was decided to 
destroy the batteries at St. Simons and withdraw all 
the forces to Frederica. This was quickly done, and 
that evening some of the enemy landed and took 
possession of the deserted and dismantled fortifi- 
cations. 

Meantime the general learned from some prisoners 
captured by the Indians that the Spaniards had land 
forces of 5,000 men and had issued commands to give 
no quarter to the English. As Mr, Rutledge of 
Charleston later wrote, " The Spaniards were re- 
solved to put all to the sword, not to spare a life, so 
as to terrify the English from any future thought of 
re-settling." Oglethorpe was now in a most danger- 
ous situation. The enemy had numerous ships, a 
great many soldiers, and were evidently determined 
to settle matters once for all with their neighbors. 
The fate of the English colonies of Georgia and South 
Carolina might depend on the outcome of the next 
few days. 

Spanish outposts tried to reach the fort at Fred- 
erica, but were driven back by Indian scouts. The 
only road to the town was by the narrow highway, 
where only three men could walk abreast, with a 
forest on one side and a marsh on the other. Artil- 
lery could not be carried over it, and it was guarded 
by Highlanders and Indians in ambush. Yet, after 
many attempts, the Spaniards managed to get within 
two miles of the town. 

Oglethorpe now led a charge of his rangers. High 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 279 

landers and Indians, so fiercely that all but a few of 
the enemy's advance-guard were killed or made 
prisoners. The Spanish commander was captured. 
The English pursued the retreating Spaniards for 
a mile, then posted guards, while the general re- 
turned to the town for reinforcements. 

The Spaniards again marched up the road and 
camped near where the English lay hid in ambush. 
A noise startled them and they seized their arms. 
The men in ambush fired, many Spaniards fell, and 
the rest fled in confusion. As a Spanish sergeant 
said, " The woods were so full of Indians that the 
devil himself could not get through them." For a 
long time the place was known as the " Bloody 
Marsh." Oglethorpe marched his troops over the 
road to within two miles of the main Spanish en- 
campment, and there halted for the night. 

The enemy withdrew to the ruined fort at St. 
Simons, where they were sheltered by the guns of 
their fleet. Oglethorpe went back to Frederica, 
leaving outposts to watch the Spaniards. There he 
found that his provisions were running low, and he 
knew that no more could be brought in since the 
enemy blocked the sound. He told the people, how- 
ever, that if they had to abandon their settlement 
they could escape through Alligators Creek and the 
canal that had been cut through Generals Island, and 
he assured his little army of 800 men that they were 
more than a match for the whole Spanish expedition^ 

Presently Spanish galleys came up the river ; but 



280 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

Indians, hid in the long grasses, prevented the sol- 
diers from landing. When they approached the town 
the batteries opened such a hot fire that the galleys 
fled down-stream much faster than they had come up. 

English prisoners, escaping from the Spaniards, 
began to bring word that the enemy were much dis- 
couraged. Many Spaniards had fallen sick, and the 
soldiers from Cuba were wrangling with the men 
from Florida. Oglethorpe therefore planned a sur- 
prise for the enemy and marched to within a mile of 
their camp. He was about to attack when one of his 
soldiers, a Frenchman who had volunteered but was 
in reality a spy, fired his gun and ran from the gen- 
eral's ranks. 

The Frenchman was not caught, and the general 
knew that he would tell the Spaniards how few 
English soldiers there were. So Oglethorpe tried a 
trick of his own, hoping to make the Frenchman ap- 
pear to be a double spy. He hired a Spanish 
prisoner to carry a letter to the spy. " The letter 
was in French," Oglethorpe later said, " as if from a 
friend, telling him that he had received the money, 
and would strive to make the Spaniards believe the 
English were very weak ; that he should undertake 
to pilot their boats and galleys, and then bring them 
into the woods where the hidden batteries were. 
That if he could bring about all this, he should have 
double the reward, and that the French deserters 
should have all that had been promised them. 

" The Spanish prisoner got into their camp," Ogle- 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 281 

thorpe said, " and was immediately carried before 
the general. He was asked how he escaped and 
whether he had any letters ; but denying this, was 
searched and the letter found. And he, upon being 
pardoned, confessed that he had received money to 
carry it to the Frenchman, for the letter was not 
directed. The Frenchman, of course, denied know- 
ing anything of the contents of the letter, or having 
received any money or had any correspondence with 
me. Notwithstanding which, a council of war was 
held and they decided the Frenchman a double spy, 
but the general would not suffer him to be executed, 
having been employed by himself." 

While the Spaniards were still in doubt as to the 
strength of Oglethorpe's forces some English ships 
arrived off the coast. This decided the Spaniards to 
leave, and they burned the barracks at St. Simons 
and took to their ships in such haste that they left 
behind some of their cannon and provisions. 

Hearing that ships had been sighted Oglethorpe 
sent an officer in a boat with a letter to their com- 
mander. But when the officer embarked he found 
no ships were to be seen. Later the general learned 
that one of the vessels sighted came from South 
Carolina, and that the officer in command had 
orders to see if the Spanish fleet had taken posses- 
sion of the fort at St. Simons, and if it had to sail 
back to Charleston at once. Here was further proof 
that the plucky governor of Georgia could expect 
little assistance from the sister colony on the north. 



282 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

By now some of the Spanish ships were out at sea, 
and others had landed their soldiers at St. Andrews 
in a temporary camp. A couple of days later 
twenty-eight of their ships sailed up to Fort William 
and called upon the garrison to surrender. The 
English officer there answered that he would not 
surrender the fort and defied the Spaniards to take 
it. The latter tried ; they landed men, who were 
driven oti by the guns of soldiers hidden in the sand- 
dunes, their ships fired on the fort, but were disabled 
by the return-fire of the Georgia batteries. After a 
battle of three hours the Spaniards withdrew from 
the scene and returned to their base at St. Augustine. 

With a few ships and eight hundred men Oglethorpe 
had defeated a Spanish fleet of fifty-six vessels and 
an army of more than 5,000 soldiers. Small wonder 
that the people of his province couldn't find praise 
enough for their leader ! George Whitefield, a 
famous clergyman of Savannah, wrote of this war 
against the Spanish Dons, " The deliverance of 
Georgia from the Spaniards is such as cannot be 
paralleled but by some instances out of the Old 
Testament. The Spaniards had intended to attack 
Carolina, but wanting water, they put into Georgia, 
and so would take that colony on their way. They 
were wonderfully repelled, and sent away before our 
ships were seen." 

The governors of the colonies of New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North 
Carolina sent letters to Oglethorpe thanking him for 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 283 

his valiant defense of the southern seaboard and ex- 
pressing their gratitude to God that Georgia had a 
commander so well fitted to protect her borders. 
The governor of South Carolina and most of his 
officers had done little or nothing to help their 
neighbor, but the people of that colony thoroughly 
disapproved of this failure to be of assistance and a 
number of them sent a message to Oglethorpe in 
which they said, " If the Spaniards had succeeded in 
their attempts they would have destroyed us, laid 
our province waste and desolate, and filled our hab- 
itations with blood and slaughter. . . . We are 
very sensible of the great protection and safety we 
have so long enjoyed by having your Excellency to 
the southward of us ; had you been cut ofi, we must, 
of course, have fallen." 

Even after this defeat, however, the Spaniards of 
Florida continued from time to time to molest the 
Georgia borders. A party of rangers was killed by 
Spanish soldiers, the settlement at Mount Venture 
was burned by Yamasee Spanish Indians. Ogle- 
thorpe had to be on the watch constantly lest the 
French or the Spanish should raid his territory. 
And the English government, though he wrote 
them time and again, neglected to send him proper 
reinforcements. 

In the spring of 1743 the general was again 
camped on the St. Johns River. He heard that a 
Spanish army was marching against him, and he 
resolved to attack them before they should attack 



284 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

him. His Indian allies stole up on the enemy, and 
surprising them, drove them back in confusion. 
The Spaniards took shelter behind one of their 
forts, and Oglethorpe could not manage to draw 
them out to battle. He marched his men back to 
Frederica, and there by Indian scouts, by sentry- 
boats, kept an eye on the Spaniards, ready to spring 
out to meet them should they renew their raids at 
any time. 

His soldiers never faltered in their obedience to 
the general's orders ; his Indian allies, though they 
were often tempted, never forsook their allegiance to 
him. The Spaniards tried many times to buy the 
red men over to their side. Similli, a chief of the 
Creeks, went to St. Augustine to see what was 
being done there. The Spaniards offered to pay 
him a large sum of money for every English pris- 
oner he would bring them, and showed him a sword 
and scarlet clothes they had given a chief of the 
Yamasees. They said of Oglethorpe, " He is poor, 
he can give you nothing ; it is foolish for you to go 
back to him." The Creek chief answered, " We love 
him. It is true he does not give us silver, but he 
gives us everything we want that he has. He has 
given me the coat off his back and the blanket from 
under him." In return for his loyalty to his English 
friend the Spaniards drove the Indian from St. 
Augustine at the point of the sword. 

The general had spent all his own money in pro- 
tecting his people in Georgia, and the English gov- 



THE FOUNDER OF GEORGIA 285 

ernment would not send him the sums he said were 
urgently needed for the province. Therefore he 
decided that he must go to England and see what 
could be done there. He put his forts on the border 
in the best possible shape for defense, appointed a 
deputy governor in Savannah, and sailed for England 
in July, 1743. 

Was the colonial hero received with the praise his 
great services deserved from England ? Instead of 
praise he was harshly criticized for this or that trivial 
matter ; though a few of the wiser men came forward 
to do him honor. Parliament would not vote him 
the money his colony needed ; he had dif]ficulty in 
finding enough money to pay his personal debts. 
Yet he kept on appealing for aid for Georgia, while 
the government took the same attitude it had taken 
toward so many of the other American colonies, and 
appeared of the opinion that the province across 
the Adantic must look after itself. Fortunately for 
Georgia, Oglethorpe had so trained its soldiers, had 
so befriended its Indian neighbors, had so protected 
it by forts that the colony was now able to go its own 
way without English help. 

In 1744 Oglethorpe married Elizabeth Wright, 
the heiress of Cranham Hall, a manor in Essex. He 
was also in that same year chosen as one of the 
officers to defend England from a threatened in- 
vasion by France. His services were not needed 
for that purpose ; but in the next year he was given 
the rank of major-general and took part in the sup- 



286 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

pression of the rebellion of the "Young Pretender." 
This kept him in England, and he left the govern- 
ment of Georgia to the care of the men he had 
trained there. From time to time, however, he be- 
stirred himself to send new colonists across the sea 
to Savannah. 

When the rebellion was ended General Oglethorpe 
and his wife settled at Cranham Hall. Here he lived 
the life of a country gentleman, delighting in the 
peace and quiet after his many turbulent years in 
Georgia. He lived to see the American Revolution, 
though he took no part in it ; he said " that he knew 
the people of America well ; that they could never 
be subdued by arms, but their obedience could ever 
be secured by treating them justly ; " he learned that 
his colony of Georgia, with twelve of her sisters, had 
succeeded in winning her independence from that 
mother-country he had served so long and on whose 
lists he was now the senior ranking general ; and he 
seems to have harbored no ill-feeling against the 
colonists for forming a new nation. 

Georgia and America owe a great debt of grati- 
tude to General James Edward Oglethorpe. None 
of the colonies had a more unselfish founder and 
governor, none were more bravely defended from 
enemies, and in none was more devotion shown to 
making a few scattered settlements in the wilder- 
ness blossom into the safe homes of a contented 
people. 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS AND 
THE YORKERS 

{Vermont^ 1774) 

I 
A YOUNG fellow, raccoon skin cap on his head, 
with heavy homespun jacket, with breeches made of 
buckskin and tucked into the tops of Hght, supple 
doeskin boots, was running along the shore of a 
lake in the Green Mountain country on a winter 
afternoon in 1774. He went at a comfortable dog- 
trot, and every now and then he would slow up or 
stop and look about him with keen eyes. Some 
people would only have seen the lake, with thin, 
broken layers of ice floating out from the shore, the 
underbrush and woods to the other side, powdered 
with a light fall of snow, and heard only the crack- 
ling of frozen twigs and the occasional scrunch of 
loose ice against the bank. But this tall, slim boy 
saw and heard a great deal more. He caught the 
hoot of an owl way off through the forest, and lis- 
tened intently to make certain that it was an owl and 
not a signal call of some Indian or trapper ; he saw 
little footprints in the snow that told him a marten 
had gone hunting small game through the brush, 



288 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

and he spied the thatched roof of a beaver's house 
in a little scallop of the lake. Then he ran on up 
the shore of the lake, all his senses alert, his eyes 
constantly looking for other trails than the one he 
had made himself on his south-bound journey that 
morning. 

The sun had been set a half-hour when he came 
to a place where the trail led inward a short distance 
from the shore. A few more yards brought him to 
a small log cabin. Other ears heard him coming 
and as he stopped a boy and a man looked out from 
the cabin doorway. " You made good time of it, 
Jack," said the boy at the door. " Did you really 
get to Button's ? " 

*' Did I get there ?" chuckled the runner. " I got 
there a good hour before noon." 

" And what did they say there ? " asked the man 
at the door. 

" That the Yorkers mean to settle this land them- 
selves. If they can," he added, with a grin. " That's 
what all the men said down at Button's, ' if they 
can,' and they shook their fists when they said it." 
Jack Sloan shook his fist in imitation of the men. 
" Not if the Green Mountain Boys can help it 1 Not 
by a jugful ! No, sir ! " he added. 

The man grunted approvingly and stepped back 
into the cabin. The boy came out. " I got a silver 
fox to-day," he declared proudly. " The biggest one 
I ever saw, too." 

" Did you, Sam ? That's fine 1 I saw plenty of 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 289 

tracks, heard a bull-moose calling, too ; but I 
didn't have time to stop. Gee, but my legs are 
tired now ! I'm going to lie down by the fire and 
rest a bit." 

He went inside, where the man was busy frying 
bacon and boiling coffee, and taking a blanket from 
a bed in the corner spread it out before the fire and 
stretched himself comfortably on it. " Dutton wanted 
to know when you'd be sending him some more 
skins, Peter," he said. " He wants to get 'em over 
to Albany early this year, in case there should be 
more trouble with the Yorkers." 

" I can send him some next week," was the an- 
swer. " There's a dozen mink and a dozen otter 
out in the shed now, an' a lot o* beavers an' martens, 
and four fine foxes. Did they say anything about 
Ethan Allen, Jack ? " 

*' They said he was down at Bennington. My, 
but that bacon smells good I They had corn-cake 
and molasses down at Dutton's, and I ate so much 
I didn't think I'd ever be hungry again, but I am all 
right now." 

Peter Jones, the trapper, laughed. " I never saw 
the time when you and Sam wasn't ready for food." 

Sam came in soon, like a bear-cub scenting food, 
and the three had supper and then made things snug 
for the night. The weather was growing colder. 
Peter, taking a squint at the sky, allowed that he 
thought the lake would be frozen clear across by 
morning. They brought in a good stock of wood 



290 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

and built up the fire, and then sat down in front of it 
to hear what Jack had to tell them of the news at 
Dutton's trading-post. 

At that time, in 1774, there was a great dispute 
between the two colonies of New Hampshire and New 
York as to which owned the country of the Green 
Mountains. New York stretched way up on the 
west shore of Lake Champlain, and New Hampshire 
extended from the northern boundary of Massachu- 
setts up along the eastern shore of the Connecticut 
River. Now Massachusetts reached as far west as a 
line drawn south from Lake Champlain, and the 
governor of New Hampshire claimed that his colony 
extended as far west as Massachusetts. He quoted 
his colony's grant from the king of England to 
prove his claim, and he sent word to Governor 
Clinton of New York that he meant to settle the 
great Green Mountain tract that lay between the 
Connecticut River and Lake Champlain. 

Governor Clinton sent back word to Governor 
Wentworth of New Hampshire that the province of 
New York claimed all that land under the charter of 
King Charles II to his brother the Duke of York. 

New Hampshire settlers, however, went into this 
debatable land and built homes and began to farm 
there. Governor Wentworth granted lands, known 
as the New Hampshire Grants, to any who would 
settle there, and a township was organized west of 
the Connecticut River, and was named Bennington. 
The country was very fertile, the woods and rivers 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 291 

were full of game, and it was a tempting land to 
take. But the New Yorkers looked on the land as 
greedily as did the men from New Hampshire, and 
soon both provinces were sending their sheriffs and 
other officers to enforce their own laws there. 

New York appealed to the king of England to 
settle the dispute, and he declared that the western 
bank of the Connecticut River should be the bound- 
ary line, giving all the Green Mountain country to 
the province of New York. By this time, however, 
there were a great many people from New Hamp- 
shire living there, and they meant to keep their 
homes no matter what the New York governor 
might do. What he did was to order the settlers to 
give up their grants from New Hampshire and buy 
their lands over again from New York, which 
charged twenty times as much as New Hampshire 
had. A few settlers did this, but most of them 
refused. A meeting of the latter was held at Ben- 
nington, and they resolved, as they said, *' to sup- 
port their rights and property in the New Hampshire 
Grants against the usurpations and unjust claims of 
the governor and Council of New York by force, as 
law and justice were denied them." 

The settlers began to resist all New York officers 
who came to arrest them or try to eject them from 
their homes. Surveyors who came to run new lines 
across lands already granted by New Hampshire 
were forced to stop. No matter how secretly a 
sheriff with a party of Yorkers, as the New York 



292 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

officers were called, came to a farm in the disputed 
land, there were sure to be settlers there to meet the 
Yorkers and drive them away. The settlers had 
scouts all through the country ; every trading-post 
was a rallying-point. 

A military force was organized, and chose Ethan 
Allen, a rugged, eloquent man, to be its colonel. 
The governor of New York declared that he would 
drive these men into the Green Mountains, and 
when they heard this Ethan Allen's followers took 
the name of Green Mountain Boys for themselves. 

Peter Jones was a hunter and trapper. The two 
boys, Jack and Sam, were the sons of men who had 
moved into the country on New Hampshire grants 
and taken up farm land. The boys had wanted to 
learn more of the woods than they could on their 
fathers' farms, and so had joined Peter at his cabin. 
He had taught them woodcraft and Indian lore, 
how to paddle a canoe, how to shoot straight, how 
to track the animals they wanted. All three were 
ready at any time to go to the help of settlers who 
might be driven from their land by New York 
officers. 

Jack told the news of Button's trading-post, and 
then the hunter and the boys went to bed. Outside 
the cabin the wind whistled and sang. By morning 
the wind had dropped, but the air was very cold. 
Peter was up soon after dawn, putting fresh wood 
on the fire. The boys followed him shortly, getting 
into warm clothes as quickly as they could. They 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 293 

ate breakfast, and went outdoors. The lake was 
a field of ice, the trees were stiff with frost, the cold 
air nipped and stung their faces viciously. 

There was plenty of work to do. Soon Peter set 
out to visit a line of traps to the south, and the boys 
went through the woods northwest to look at other 
traps. They came to the frozen bed of a little 
stream and a couple of beaver traps. There were 
no animals there. Perhaps the night had been too 
cold to tempt them from their homes. " I shouldn't 
think any animals would have gone prowling round 
last night," said Sam. 

" I know I wouldn't," said Jack, " if I was a 
beaver." 

They pushed on through the woods until they 
came to an open pasture. They had started across 
it when they heard a crow calling overhead. " Must 
be a fox somewhere about," whispered Jack. " Let's 
see if we can find him, even if we haven't got our 
guns." 

They went back to the edge of the woods, making 
as little noise as they could, for they knew that a fox 
depends more on his ears than on his eyes. They 
stopped behind the trees and after a few minutes 
saw a big gray fox trotting slowly along the edge of 
the woods. Dropping to their knees the boys crept 
forward to a hummock and hid back of it. The fox 
stood still, looked about, and then started at a slow 
gait across the meadow. 

The fox was more than a hundred yards away 



294 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

from the boys when Jack began to squeak like a 
meadow-mouse. No Indian or hunter could have 
heard the sound at half that distance, but the air was 
very still and Jack knew the fox's big ears were very 
sharp. True enough, the fox did hear it, and stop- 
ping, looked around. 

Again Jack gave the squeak of the meadow-mouse. 
The fox came leaping lightly over the frozen has- 
socks of the meadow toward the two hidden boys. 
Every few yards he would stop and cock his ears 
over the long grass to listen. Each time he did this 
Jack squeaked, lower and lower each time, and every 
time the fox came on again, more and more cau- 
tiously, as if he were afraid of frightening the game 
he was hunting. 

The fox got within fifty yards, and from there the 
boys, crouching behind their hummock, were in 
plain view of him. The fox looked sharply, dis- 
trustingly at the hummock. Had either boy moved 
his head or arm the fraction of an inch the fox would 
have shot off like an arrow to the woods. Neither 
did move, however. Jack waited until he judged 
from the fox's attitude and the set of his ears that 
his suspicions were vanishing, and then he squeaked 
again, very faintly now. The fox bounded on, al- 
most up to the hummock. Then he stopped short, 
and the boys could see from the look on his shrewd 
face that he judged something was wrong. Instead 
of coming on he circled round to the left, trusting to 
his nose rather than to his eyes. 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 295 

Jack squeaked, but the fox went on circling ; it 
was plain he meant to come no farther. " What's 
the matter, old boy ? " said Jack softly. 

At the sound of Jack's voice the fox sprang up 
into the air and then bounded away to the edge of 
the woods, where he stopped a minute to look back 
and then disappeared behind the trees. 

"We could have had him easy," said Sam, get- 
ting up. " We could almost have caught him with 
our hands." 

" I don't want to try catching a big fellow like that 
with my hands," said Jack, chuckling. " Give me a 
gun every time." 

When they got back to the cabin they found that 
Peter had been more successful than they in his visit 
to the traps on the south, for the skins of an otter 
and a mink had been added to the store that hung 
on a line in the drying-shed. After dinner the 
hunter took from his pocket a piece of wood he had 
been working over for several days. "I'm going to 
see if I can't fool a pickerel with this," he announced, 
holding out the little decoy for the boys to look at. 
The wood was cut to represent a minnow, was 
weighted on the bottom with lead, and had fins and 
a tail made of tin. He had painted a red stripe on 
each side, a white belly, and a brilliant green back. 
A line fastened to the minnow would allow Peter to 
pull it about in the water as if it were swimming. 

Armed with a long-shafted fish-spear and a hatchet 
Peter and the boys went out on the ice. Choosing 



296 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

a smooth place Peter cut a square of ice. Then 
through the open space the hunter dropped his 
wooden minnow and made it swim about in a very 
lively way. In his right hand he held the spear 
poised, ready to strike at any venturesome fish. 

For some time they waited ; then the long nose of 
a pickerel showed in the water ; Peter jerked the 
minnow and struck with the spear. The pickerel, 
however, slipped away unharmed. They had to 
wait fifteen minutes before another appeared. This 
time the pickerel stopped motionless, and seemed to 
be carefully considering the lively red-striped min- 
now. Then the fish shot forward, Peter aimed his 
spear, and the shining pickerel was caught and 
thrown out on the ice. Peter caught two more fish 
before he let Sam have a try at it. Sam and Jack 
each caught a pickerel, and then they brought their 
five trophies back to the camp to cook for supper. 

They had just sat down to supper when there 
came a rap on the door followed by the entrance of 
a tall man in a fur jacket with a gun slung across 
his back. He was John Snyder, a hunter from the 
country north of the lake, and he had met the three 
in the cabin several times before. 

•' H-mm," said he, " that fish smells mighty good. 
I haven't tasted fish for a month o' Sundays." 

" Pitch right in," invited Peter, setting out another 
tin plate and pouring a cup of coffee for the new 
arrival. 

Snyder pulled off his cap and gloves, and threw 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 297 

off his fur coat, showing a buckskin jacket under- 
neath. He ate like a man who hadn't tasted food 
for a month. After a while he said, " They say up 
where I come from that thar's trouble down Ben- 
nington way. If the Yorkers want trouble I reckon 
we can supply 'em good and proper. I'm on my 
way to Button's, and thar's more of the Boys comin' 
on down through the woods. Why don't you come 
along with me in the morning ? " 

" We was planning to go when we'd got a few 
more skins," said Peter. " But we've got a fair- 
sized stock, an' I don't know but what we might go 
along with you." 

" That's what the word is," said Snyder. " Green 
Mountain Boys to Bennington." He looked hardy 
and tough, a typical pioneer, quite as ready to fight 
as he was to hunt or farm. 

That night the guest slept on the floor before the 
fire, rolled in a blanket, and soon after dawn next 
morning the four set out, pulling two heavy sleds to 
which the furs and skins were securely strapped. 

All four of the party were used to long trips on 
foot, often carrying considerable baggage. There 
were few post-roads through that part of the coun- 
try, and horses would have been little use in travel- 
ing through such rough and wooded stretches. So 
most of the new settlers, and particularly those who 
were hunters, copied the customs of the Indians and 
trained themselves to long journeys afoot, varied 
occasionally by canoeing when they reached open 



298 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

water. %he party of four traveled fast, in spite of 
the iieavy sleds. Peter Jones, not very tall but very 
wiry, all sinew and muscle, and Sam, red-haired, 
freckle-faced, and rather stocky, pulled one sled, and 
big, raw-boned, weather-beaten Snyder, and slim, 
Indian-like Jack the other. 

Presently they left the lake and came into more 
open country, where they could see snow-powdered 
hills stretching away to the clear blue horizon. Now 
they made better time, for there was no underbrush 
to catch the sleds and stop them. On they went 
until they saw a number of cabins grouped about a 
larger frame building, then they broke into a run, 
and dashed up with a shout before Button's trading- 
post. 

The shout brought three or four men out to see 
what was the matter. They called the newcomers 
by name, and " Big Bill " Dutton, seeing the sleds, 
told Peter Jones to bring his furs inside. Jack and 
Sam and Peter unstrapped the furs and carried them 
into the house, where they were spread out on a 
long counter, over which Dutton was accustomed to 
buy whatever farmers and hunters and trappers 
might have for sale, and in return to sell them pro- 
visions or clothing or guns or powder and shot or 
whatever he might have that they wanted. 

There was always a great deal of haggling over 
the sale of furs. Peter had to point out what un- 
usually fine skins of otter and beaver and mink, of 
marten and fox he had brought, and Dutton had to 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 299 

argue that this fur was rather scanty, that other one 
very much spotted. But at last they reached an 
agreement, Peter was paid in cash for the pelts, and 
they were carefully stowed away by the trader, to 
be sent at the first good opportunity over to Albany, 
from where they would go by boat down the river 
to New York. 

Meantime Jack and Sam, outside the house, were 
listening to the stories of the men who had gathered 
at Dutton's. They were exciting stories of conflicts 
between Green Mountain settlers and the Yorkers or 
those who sided with them. One man told how a 
doctor, who had openly talked in favor of the York- 
ers, had been swung in an armchair for two hours 
under the sign of the Green Mountain Tavern at 
Bennington, on which sign stood the stuffed hide of 
a great panther, a monster who showed his teeth at 
all enemies from New York. Most of the stories 
were of the exploits of Ethan Allen and his band of 
Green Mountain Boys. They said that Ethan Allen 
had caught a surveyor marking out claims for York- 
ers, and had taken him prisoner and had ordered 
him out of the country on pain of death if they 
caught him there again. Then Allen had marched 
on to the First Falls of Otter Creek, where Yorkers 
had driven out some New Hampshire settlers who 
had built a sawmill. The Boys had sent the intru- 
ders flying at the point of their guns, and had burned 
their log houses and broken the stones of a grist- 
mill the enemy had built. Then they had brought 



300 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the original owners back and settled them again in 
possession of their houses and sawmill. All through 
that part of the country similar things were taking 
place. The men said they had word that Yorkers 
were planning to drive settlers off their farms not 
very far to the west of Button's. ** If they do it," 
cried Snyder, striking his open palm with his great 
fist, " I want to be there to settle accounts with 
them 1 " So said all the rest ; Ethan Allen and his 
men shouldn't have all the glory there was going. 

" Big Bill " Dutton's frame house was tavern and 
post-office as well as trading-post and meeting-place 
for the settlers of the neighborhood. When Mrs. 
Button rang the dinner bell all the strangers trooped 
into the room back of the store and sat at the long 
table. Jack and Sam marched in with the others 
and ate their share of dinner while they listened to 
the talk of the men. Some of the latter were for 
setting out south toward Bennington immedi- 
ately, in order to learn at first hand what was going 
on. 

After dinner they all stood about the stove in the 
store, talking, talking, talking. Sam and Jack went 
outdoors and looked about the little group of cabins. 
A boy of near their own age came out from one of 
the houses and talked with them about hunting 
moose. As they were swapping yarns a man rode 
into the settlement from the southwest. At sight of 
the three he flung out his right arm. " Yorkers 
down to Beaver Falls ! " he called out. " They're 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 301 

coming to drive our people out o' their liomes ! Are 
there any Green Mountain Boys hereabouts?" 

" In there I " exclaimed Jack, pointing to the store. 
" Tell 'em about it in there ! " 

The horseman sprang from his saddle. " Fetch a 
blanket for my horse, will you?" said he. The boy 
who lived there ran indoors to get a covering. 
Meantime the rider strode up to Dutton's door and 
flung it open. He walked up to the group of men 
about the stove, announcing his news briefly. At 
his heels came Sam and Jack, and back of them 
came the boy from the log house opposite. 

II 

They started from Dutton's next morning, a troop 
of a dozen men and three boys, bound for Beaver 
Falls. " Big Bill " left his store in charge of his 
wife, and took command of the troop. They were 
all hardy and strong, and they covered the twenty 
miles to Beaver Falls by the middle of the afternoon. 

Here there stood a sawmill on the river, with a 
score of log houses, and farms scattered through the 
neighborhood. The place looked perfectly quiet as 
the fifteen Green Mountain Boys trooped up to it. 
But they soon found there was plenty of excitement 
in the mill. There were gathered most of the men 
of the Falls, and they were very glad to see the re- 
inforcements. 

" Yorkers been found prowling round in the 
woods ! " " Surveyors been caught in the act of 



302 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

staking claims ! " " Jim Murdock found a paper 
stuck on his door, saying we'd better get out 
peaceful-like, and let the lawful owners have their 
land ! " Such were some of the items of informa- 
tion given to Button's band. 

"Let 'em come ! " exclaimed Snyder, slapping his 
hand round the muzzle of his gun. "This is the 
law of the land we'll read to them ! " 

After a time Jack and Sam, having heard all there 
was to hear, struck out on a line of their own. 
They followed the bank of the river until they came 
to woods, and then skirted the forest southward. 
This brought them at length to a wide trail with 
frozen wheel ruts. Down this road they went, pass- 
ing occasional cabins, until they came to a crossroad 
where they found a man looking perplexedly about 
him, as if undecided which road to take. 

"Where's Farmer Robins' place?" he asked. 
" The place that used to belong to Elijah Robins." 

" We don't know," said Jack. " We're strangers 
here." 

" There's a maple grove back of it," said the 
stranger, "that's all I know about it. I was told to 
stick to this road, but they didn't say nothing about 
any forks in it." 

" This goes to Beaver Falls," said Sam, pointing 
to the one they had taken, "and that," he added, 
indicating the crossroad to the right of him, " would 
take you through thick woods to the river." 

" I don't reckon it's either o' those roads then," 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 303 

said the man, and, bobbing his head at Sam, he 
stalked off to the left. 

The two boys watched until the man was almost 
hidden by the trees. Then Jack turned to Sam, 
"You don't want to tell all you know to strangers," 
he said. " Make the other man tell you what he's 
up to first." 

Sam's round face, not nearly so shrewd as the 
older boy's, looked perplexed. " Why shouldn't I 
tell him about those other roads ?" he asked. 

" Because I think he may be one of the Yorkers, 
and the less we tell them about the lay of the land 
round here the better." 

" Do you really think he was ? " exclaimed Sam, 
his tone of voice showing that he had expected a 
Yorker to be a much more terrifying looking creature 
than this stranger. " What did he want of Farmer 
Robins' place then ? " 

" I don't know," answered Jack. *' But I think 
we might be able to find out something more about 
it if we follow his tracks." 

They turned to the west, following the road where 
the prints of the man's big hob-nailed boots could 
now and then be seen in the frozen crust of snow. 
The sun was setting, and the wind was rising, and 
they pulled their fur caps down over their ears and 
stuck their hands in their pockets as they trudged 
along. It grew dark rapidly. They passed two 
cabins where they looked closely for a clump of 
maples and then scoured the road to find the prints 



304 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

of the hob-nails. The man's tracks went on, and 
they followed, only speaking in whispers now lest 
they should be overheard. 

At the third log house they stopped. Jack, catch- 
ing Sam by the sleeve, pointed to the back of the 
house, where the starlight unmistakably showed a 
grove of trees. Smoke came from the chimney, and 
the front door, not quite plumb in its frame, showed 
there was a light inside. Jack crept round the cabin, 
Sam following him, each as silent as if they were 
stalking moose. There were four windows, but 
each was securely shuttered from the inside, and 
though light came through the cracks, the boys 
could see nothing of what was going on inside nor 
catch a sound of voices. 

Then Jack made the circuit of the house again, 
this time examining the logs and the filling of clay 
between them with the greatest care. At last he 
found a place that seemed to interest him, and he 
pulled out his hunting knife from its sheath and 
began to pick at a knot-hole in the wood. His 
knife was very sharp, and he dug into the circle 
round the knot and then into the clay just below it. 
He worked swiftly and very quietly. In a short time 
he had the wood loosened ; pressing inward with 
his blade he forced the knot out, and then scraped 
some of the plaster away. Now he had a hole that 
enabled him by stooping a little to look into the 
cabin. 

He put his eye to the opening, and saw about a 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 305 

dozen men in the room. He could hear what they 
said. They were, as he had suspected, Yorkers, 
planning to make an attack on the people at Beaver 
Falls. As Jack listened he pieced one remark to 
another, and caught the gist of their plans. They 
meant to march down to the Falls that night, stop 
at each house, rout the people out, make them 
prisoners in the sawmill, and take possession of 
houses and farms under orders from officers of the 
province of New York. 

Jack drew away from the hole, and let Sam have 
a chance to look into the log-house room. When 
Sam had watched and listened for a few minutes 
he nodded to Jack, and the two stole away from 
the cabin as noiselessly as they had circled 
round it. 

Out on the road, as they went hurrying back by 
the way they had come, they whispered to each 
other, telling what each had overheard. Then they 
went at a dog-trot to the path along the river and 
came to the sawmill at Beaver Falls. 

Peter, " Big Bill " Dutton, Snyder, and most of 
the other men were at the mill, though some had 
been stationed on sentry-duty in the fields and 
woods. Jack told his story without interruption, 
and then the men began to plan how they should 
welcome the Yorkers. It was " Big Bill's " plan 
they finally adopted, and set to work to carry it 
into effect at once. 

All the people at the Falls had had their supper, 



3o6 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the women were busy cleaning up, most of the chil- 
dren were in bed. The men went to the houses, 
and told the women that they and the children must 
spend the night in the sawmill. Children were bun- 
dled into warm clothes, and, wondering what was 
happening, were hurried to the mill by their moth- 
ers. Half a dozen men under command of Snyder 
were stationed at the mill, the others were allotted 
to the different houses in the village. Two were 
told ofi to each house, and it happened that Peter 
and Jack stood on guard at the house nearest the 
Falls. 

Every house at that time had its store of firearms, 
its powder and balls. Peter and Jack sat inside their 
cabin, muskets ready to hand. From time to time 
they threw fresh wood on the fire, for the night was 
cold. Jack stood at a window, looking out at the 
open space along the river and the road on the 
opposite bank, both faintly lighted by the stars. 
Midnight came, but there was no sign of the York- 
ers ; presently it seemed to Jack that it must be 
nearly dawn. 

Peter, standing at a window on the other side of 
the door from Jack, suddenly said, " Look 1 There, 
coming through the trees to the left of the mill ! " 

Jack looked and saw men coming into the road, 
a good many of them, more than he thought he had 
seen at Farmer Robins' house. They came along 
the road, crossed the wooden bridge below the Falls, 
passed by the mill, evidently taking it for granted 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 307 

there would be no one there at this hour, and 
marched into the clearing before the log houses. 
There they divided into small parties, each party 
heading for a separate cabin. 

" Ready now ! " cautioned Peter. " We've got 
two to handle. I'll take the first." 

Jack stepped back from the window and laid his 
hand on the bolt of the door. 

" Wait till I give the word," whispered Peter. 

From outside there came a loud voice. " Open 
your door in the name of the Sheriff of New York ! " 
There followed knocks on the door, and other orders, 
all to the same intent. 

Peter waited until the owner might be supposed 
to rouse and get to the door. Then he whispered, 
" Now ! " Jack drew back the bolt and opened the 
door enough for the men to enter single file. One 
man stepped in, the other followed at his heels. 

Peter caught the first man in his arms, and, taking 
him altogether unawares, threw him to the floor with 
a wrestler's trip. Jack, throwing his arms round 
the second man's knees, brought him down with a 
crash. Lithe and quick as an eel, Jack squirmed up 
to the man's chest and gripped the Yorker's throat 
in his hands. In a minute or two the man under- 
neath was almost breathless. " Do you surrender ? " 
panted Jack. The Yorker tried to nod. 

Peter had wrenched his man's gun away, and was 
copying Jack's tactics. His man was partly stunned 
by the sharpness of the fall and made little attempt 



308 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

to free himself from Peter's grasp. Finding himself 
attacked by a thoroughly-prepared and resolute 
man, he had no notion as to how many other such 
men there might be in the house. It was clearly a 
case where it was best to save one's skin as whole 
as one could. So, when Peter said, " Keep still 
there, will you I " the Yorker grunted, " I will," and 
made no attempt, unarmed as he was, to try further 
conclusions with the sinewy hunter. 

Peter had a coil of rope ready. Now he cut two 
lengths of this, tossed one over to Jack, who still 
kept his knee on the chest of his man, and used the 
other to tie the arms of his own prisoner. Then he 
helped the Yorker to his feet. Meantime Jack had 
followed his example with the other, and shortly 
both prisoners were standing before the hearth while 
their captors searched their pockets for firearms and 
knives. 

" I must allow," said one of the Yorkers, " you 
two were mighty sharp ! We figured that when 
you people here heard we were acting under sheriff's 
orders you'd do as you were told." 

** We don't pay no more attention hereabouts to 
what a Yorker sheriff says than if he was a cata- 
mount, — no, not so much as that ! " returned Peter. 
"What do you men mean by marching into a 
peaceful village an' trying to turn people out o' 
their lawful homes ? " 

" Well, the village certainly looked peaceful 
enough," said the Yorker, "but I don't see as 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 309 

how we've turned many folks out o' their homes 
yet." 

" And I don't think you will ! " Peter assured him. 
"Jack, take a look outside and see what's hap- 
pened." 

Jack went out, and going from house to house, 
found that wherever the Yorkers had demanded ad- 
mittance the Green Mountain Boys had worked their 
trick beautifully. In two or three houses it had 
taken some time to make the enemy prisoners, but 
in each case the elements of surprise and determi- 
nation had won the day. The Yorkers had ex- 
pected to meet frightened villagers ; instead they 
had found themselves confronting well-prepared 
Green Mountain Boys. 

Under direction of " Big Bill " Button the pris- 
oners, all with their arms securely tied behind them, 
were marched out into the road. " You say you 
came to Beaver Falls to carry out the law," said 
Dutton to the Yorkers ; " well, to-morrow we'll march 
you all down to Bennington, and see what the law 
has to say about this business." Then he sent Sam 
to the sawmill with word to Snyder to have the 
women and children return to their own houses. 
When the sawmill was empty the Green Mountain 
Boys marched their prisoners into it, and loosened 
their bonds so that they could be fairly comfortable. 

In spite of the high feeling between the two parties, 
there was practically no bad blood, for no one had 
been wounded in the contest, and the Yorkers could 



3IO HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

appreciate the clever way in which their opponents 
had turned the tables on them. In most respects the 
men were much alike ; men of the New York Grants 
and the New Hampshire Grants had both gone into 
the wilderness and met the same problems there. 
Men from both provinces had fought against the 
French and Indians, and this litde fight as to which 
province owned the land of the Green Mountains 
was in a way a family affair. So prisoners and cap- 
tors swapped yarns, told hunting stories, and ex- 
changed the news of their own neighborhoods. Jack 
and Sam and the boy from Dutton's sat in a corner 
of the mill and listened to the men. Dawn began to 
break in the east. Some women brought hot coffee 
and ham and bacon from the houses, and the men, 
both captors and captives, ate and drank, and then 
some of them stretched out on the floor and took 
short naps. 

Day had come when one of the Green Mountain 
Boys, who had been stationed as sentry on the road 
across the river, dashed into the mill with a new 
alarm. He had seen some men, perhaps a dozen of 
them, coming down the road toward the Falls. They 
might be friends or they might be enemies. The 
men of the Falls must not be taken by surprise. 

" Big Bill " quickly gave his orders. Three men, 
armed with muskets, were left in charge of the pris- 
oners in the sawmill, and the rest, their guns ready 
for instant use if need be, marched out into the clear- 
ing between the mill and the bridge, ready to defend 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 311 

Beaver Falls from the newcomers in case they should 
be Yorkers. 



Ill 

The strangers had come to the head of the bridge 
on the opposite bank of the river from the sawmill 
when they were suddenly halted by an abrupt ** Who 
are you — friend or foe ? " They saw a big man com- 
ing round from behind the mill, followed by about 
twenty others, and the light was now sufficiently clear 
to show the strangers that these men were armed, 
and quite prepared to use their guns if necessary. 
The strangers — of whom there were ten — stopped on 
their side of the river. 

'* Big Bill," marching his men down to his end of 
the bridge, so as to prevent any attempt to cross it, 
now repeated his question, " Are you Yorkers ? 
Or are you friends ? If you're looking for a fight 
we're the boys as can give you one ! " 

The leader of the other party saw that the big 
fellow who spoke for Beaver Falls was telling the 
truth. There were twice as many Green Mountain 
Boys as there were men of his own party, and they 
looked ready for fight. In such case he instantly 
recognized that discretion was the better part of 
valor. He grounded his musket to show that he had 
no intention of using it, and smiled at the big man 
opposite. " We're peaceful folks," he declared, " and 
not spoiling for a fight with you." 

"That's sensible talk," said Dutton, also ground- 



312 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

ing his gun, which he had been holding ready for 
instant use. " All the same, I reckon you be Yorkers, 
and weren't coming on any good business to the 
Falls." 

" We've got orders from the proper parties in New 
York to take possession of this territory," admitted 
the other leader. 

" Well, you can go back to your proper parties 
and tell 'em other folks have already taken posses- 
sion here." 

"You folks haven't got the law on your side," 
protested the Yorker leader. 

" That depends on what law you're talking about," 
retorted " Big Bill." " We've got the law of New 
Hampshire, and I reckon that's as good law as any 
they make in the Yorkers' country." 

The other man saw there was no more use in 
arguing with his opponents than in fighting them. 
" You're a pretty slick lot," he said in a conciliatory 
tone. " Can't catch you boys asleep, can we ? " 

"Some o' your men tried to last night," said But- 
ton. " We've got 'em in the sawmill now, and we're 
going to take 'em down to Bennington pretty soon 
and see what the law there has to say about men 
who come around trying to steal other folks' 
property." 

" Oh, you've got 'em, have you ? We were won- 
dering where they'd got to. Well, I guess there 
isn't much more for us to be doing round here then." 

Button grinned. " No, Yorkers, I don't hardly 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 313 

think there is. Unless you want to hand over those 
guns and join the party that's going down to Ben- 
nington." 

" Hardly think we'd enjoy that party, neighbor," 
said the Yorker leader. 

*' Well, some of us is going south with your 
friends," said " Big Bill," " but there'll be plenty left 
here at the Falls to give you a pleasant welcome any 
time you want to call. 

The Yorkers conferred together for a few minutes. 
Then the leader sang out, " Good-bye, boys. Glad 
to have met you ! " 

" Good-bye," Dutton called back. " Come again 
any time ! " shouted Snyder. The rest of the men 
of the Falls sent other messages flying across the 
river. 

The Yorkers shouldered their muskets and marched 
back the road, while the Green Mountain Boys 
cheered until the last of their opponents was hidden 
by the trees. 

Dutton's party, including the three boys, stayed 
at Beaver Falls the better part of that day, waiting 
to see if any more Yorkers would put in an appear- 
ance. But no more came, and that afternoon, leav- 
ing a sufficient number to guard the village, they set 
out with their prisoners for Bennington. They spent 
the night at another small settlement, where the peo- 
ple were only too glad to give them shelter when 
they learned what the band had done. Next day 
they reached Bennington, and turned their prisoners 



314 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

over to the sheriff there, to be dealt with as the offi- 
cers should think fit. 

In Bennington, which was a very primitive town, 
but the center of that part of the country, Jack and 
Sam heard much about the border strife. They 
heard that the governor of New York had offered 
rewards for the capture of certain Green Mountain 
Boys, one hundred pounds apiece for the arrest of 
Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, fifty pounds 
apiece for Seth Warner and five others. The gov- 
ernor also ordered that any people who should resist 
the commands of New York officers should be ar- 
rested and taken to Albany for trial. All of " Big 
Bill's " party, Jack and Sam among them, were there- 
fore now liable to be arrested by New York officers. 

The people of Bennington and the Green Moun- 
tain Boys, however, only laughed at these proclama- 
tions of the New York governor. They were quite 
ready to defend themselves if any came to arrest 
them. 

While they were at Bennington Ethan Allen and 
the others who had been declared outlaws issued a 
proclamation of their own. They said, "We are 
under the necessity of resisting even unto blood 
every person who may attempt to take us as felons 
or rioters as aforesaid, for in this case it is not resist- 
ing law, but only opposing force by force ; therefore, 
inasmuch as, by the oppressions aforesaid, the New 
Hampshire settlers are reduced to the disagreeable 
state of anarchy and confusion ; in which state we 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 315 

hope for wisdom, patience, and fortitude till the 
happy hour His Majesty shall graciously be pleased 
to restore us to the privileges of Englishmen." 

The boys heard other gossip and rumors from the 
hunters and traders and farmers who came and went 
in Bennington. They learned that there was a plan 
on foot to settle the dispute about the Grants by 
joining them to that part of the province of New 
York that lay to the east of the Hudson River, and 
forming that whole new territory into a separate 
royal province. Colonel Philip Skene, who lived in 
state at Skenesborough House on his large estate at 
the head of Lake Champlain, was reported to be 
very much interested in this new plan, and was said 
to be going to England to further it, with a view to 
becoming the first governor of the new province. 

The people of the New Hampshire Grants con- 
tinued their defiance of the Yorkers. When a sheriff 
or surveyor from the other side of the line was 
caught by the people, he was, as Ethan Allen hu- 
morously put it, " severely chastised with twigs of 
the wilderness." The rods used, however, were the 
" blue beech " ones that the farmers used in driving 
stubborn oxen, and could hardly be considered twigs. 
This punishment the people of the Grants called 
** stamping the Yorkers with the beech seal," and 
many a sheriff who tried to carry out the orders of 
his province in the Green Mountain country went 
home with the " beech seal " on his back. 

The officers of New York protested and protested. 



3i6 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

They sent a request to General Gage at Boston for 
men to aid their sheriffs in the county of Char- 
lotte, but General Gage declined to interfere in the 
border struggle. And while the Yorkers fumed and 
vowed vengeance, Ethan Allen and the Green Moun- 
tain Boys, like Rob Roy and his Highland outlaws, 
did as they pleased in the debatable land. 

Peter Jones and Jack and Sam went back to their 
lake, ready to take the trail to Dutton's and Beaver 
Falls and Bennington whenever they should be 
needed. In early spring the boys left the hunter 
and joined their fathers on the farms, where there 
was plenty of work to be done at that time of 
year. There they spent the summer, planting and 
harvesting the crops. 

Meantime a flame was smouldering in the country 
that was soon to burst forth into fire. Some men 
were not satisfied with the way in which the British 
government was treating its colonies in America. 
Conventions were held in various parts of New York 
and the New Hampshire Grants. The people of 
Dummerston, in the eastern part of the Grants, freed 
Lieutenant Spaulding from their jail after he had been 
sent there on a charge of high treason for criticizing 
the king of England. Troubles grew more frequent 
between the more independent people, known as 
Whigs, and the strict Royalists, or Tories. It flamed 
out when the time came for holding the King's Court 
of Cumberland County at the town of Westminster 
on March 14, 1775. Forty citizens of the county 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 317 

called on the judge, Colonel Chandler, and asked 
him not to hold the court. The judge said the court 
must meet. The Whigs thereupon decided to lay 
their protests before the court when it was in session. 
Then word spread about that the court meant to 
have a strong guard to prevent the citizens from 
attending its meetings. About a hundred men, 
armed only with clubs that they picked up from a 
wood-pile, marched into the court-house at West- 
minster late in the afternoon of March 14th. They 
meant to make the judges listen to their complaints. 
Meantime down the main street came the sheriff, 
with a strong force of armed men and the court 
ofificers. He halted in front of the door, and de- 
manded admission. He got no answer from the 
men inside the building. Then he read aloud the 
king's proclamation, commanding all persons un- 
lawfully gathered there to disperse at once ; and he 
added that if they didn't come out in fifteen minutes 
he " would blow a lane through them ! " 

The men in the building answered that they would 
not disperse, but would let the sheriff and the court 
ofificers come in if they would lay aside their arms. 
The clerk of the court drew his pistol, and swore that 
that was the only way in which he would parley with 
such rascals. Judge Chandler, however, found a 
chance when the sheriff's men were seeking refresh- 
ments at the tavern to tell the citizens that the arms 
had been brought without his consent, and added 
that the Whigs might stay in the court-house until 



31 8 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the next morning, when the officers would come in 
without arms and would listen to any petitions. 

Dusk encircled the little town that lay close to the 
broad Connecticut River. The Whigs stayed in the 
court-house, a single sentry stationed at the door. 
The people shut their houses for the night, while the 
tavern did a good business. Some of the Whigs fell 
asleep on the court-room benches, others listened to 
the stories of old Indian-fighters. 

Then, about midnight, the sentry at the door saw 
the sheriff and his men coming from the tavern, 
where they had been drinking all the evening. He 
gave the word to the men in the court-house to man 
the doors. The sheriff's force marched to within ten 
rods of the main door and halted. The order was 
given to fire. Three shots answered the order. A 
louder order was given, followed by a volley that 
killed one of the defenders, fatally wounded another, 
and severely wounded a number of others. Then 
the sheriff's party rushed in on the defenders, who 
were only armed with clubs, and taking some of 
them prisoners, carried them off to jail. Some of 
the Whigs escaped, fighting their way through the 
sheriff's force with their clubs. 

Here, at the town of Westminster, in the Grants, 
the first blows were struck that preceded the coming 
Revolution. 

Those of the men who escaped from the court- 
house carried the news of the bloodshed to the 
Whigs all through the neighboring country, and so 



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS 319 

quickly that before noon of the next day two hundred 
armed men reached Westminster from the province 
of New Hampshire. Before that night every one who 
had had a part in the shooting of the citizens at the 
court-house was seized and held under a strong 
guard. Still more Whigs, roused by the story of 
what the king's officers had done, poured into the 
little town from the southern part of the county, and 
even from the colony of Massachusetts, so that by 
the following day it was said there were in the little 
village five hundred soldiers all ready for war. 

All these men met and voted to choose a com- 
mittee to act for them and see that justice was done. 
This committee ordered that all those who were 
known to have taken part in the shooting should be 
put on trial at the next court. Then the men of the 
Grants, and those from New Hampshire and from 
Massachusetts, went back home. 

But the men of the Grants heard news later that 
spring of 1775 that made them forget the affair that 
was called " the Westminster Massacre," and the 
trial of the sheriff's soldiers was neglected in the 
whirl of far more exciting events. One day in April 
came the word that the farmers of Lexington and 
Concord had fired on the redcoats who marched 
out from Boston. The spirit of revolt, smouldering 
so long, leaped into instant flame at the news. All 
through the colonies from New Hampshire down to 
Georgia men vowed to stand beside the farmers of 
Massachusetts and defy His Majesty, King George 



320 HISTORIC EVENTS OF COLONIAL DAYS 

the Third. The men of the Grants, who had been 
resisting the orders of the royal governor of New 
York, the Green Mountain Boys, who had driven 
Yorlcers time and again from their country, were 
among the first to arm for independence. And 
Yorker fought side by side with Green Mountain 
Boy in the war of the Revolution. 

Peter Jones, and Jack and Sam, Snyder, "Big Bill " 
Button, and the others who had made the stand at 
Beaver Falls, were among the men and boys who 
flocked to the flag of Ethan Allen when he took the 
field in the Green Mountain country. And Ethan 
Allen's Boys won some of the greatest victories of 
the Revolution, at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga 
on Lake Champlain, and in many battles along the 
Canadian border. The people of the Grants also 
met and declared their territory a free republic, be- 
longing neither to New Hampshire on the east nor 
to New York on the west, and choosing for them- 
selves the beautiful name of Vermont, which means 
Green Mountain. 

Thirteen states formed the original union of the 
United States, and Vermont became the fourteenth 
state of the Union in 1791. By that time Green 
Mountain Boys had become a name of great honor, 
and the Yorkers were their staunchest friends and 
allies. 





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